L I B R.ARY 
 
 OF THL 
 U N IVER5 ITY 
 or ILLl NOIS 
 
 auMois mmw. sww
 
 0»7
 
 WILLIAM McKENDREE 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL 
 STUDY 
 
 By BISHOP E. E. HOSS 
 
 METHODIST FOUNDERS' SERIES 
 
 Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Dallas, Tex,; Richmond, Va. 
 
 Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South 
 
 Smith & Lamar, Agents 
 
 1916
 
 Copyright, 1914 
 
 BY 
 
 Smith & Lamar
 
 '19 \(^ 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 An adequate subject and a capable and dedicated 
 pen are the necessary conditions for making a pur- 
 poseful book, one that in itself has power to live and 
 accomplish the end of its writing. The wide religious 
 fellowship to which the present volume is particularly 
 addressed will, without debate, allow that in it these 
 conditions have been met. Such a presentation as it 
 makes of the apostolic career with which it deals has 
 long been a desideratum in the thought life of the 
 Church. It will not be denied that the biographical 
 studies of the early leadership of Methodism in this 
 country have, until more recent years, been found in 
 writings whose terms, while commendably sympathetic 
 and true to the vitalities involved, are not all that is 
 demanded by both the religious and philosophical in- 
 quisitiveness of our times. It is to effect this new 
 setting of old truths and to revive the too plainly 
 waning appreciation of heroic precedents that this 
 volume and others in the series of which it is a unit 
 have been written. A privileged perusal of these 
 pages while they were yet in ante-publication processes 
 has suggested to the writer of this introductory sketch 
 the possibilities with which they are charged. 
 
 Without so much as touching upon the question of 
 inspiration — a matter that must remain inviolate in all 
 reverent thinking — the Book of the Acts is properly 
 thought of in connection with the authorship of St. 
 Luke. While it is impossible to imagine what the 
 
 (I)
 
 2 Life of William McKcndree. 
 
 apostolic story had been coming from another hand 
 than his, it is quite allowable and reverent to plus its 
 inspiration with the personality and viewpoint of its 
 author. The viewpoint is, in fact, always an integer of 
 first importance, for it is the channel through which tlie 
 capabilities and fitness of the biographer's personality 
 find expression. Changed conditions and the emer- 
 gence of a new historical viewpoint have ripened the 
 conviction that our Methodist biography needs a new 
 and more natural setting. The classics of personal 
 history which we have so long used and revered will 
 continue to have their place in our denominational bib- 
 liography; but they must, more and more, fall to the 
 exclusive use of students and specialists and give place 
 in the hands of the general reader to fresher and apter 
 recitals of their narratives. 
 
 These conclusions involve the doctrine of the con- 
 tinued activity of individual life. The souls of the 
 worthies of the past not only continue to walk the 
 earth, but their deeds have a continuity of force and 
 vitality which requires anew to be made manifest and 
 anew declared. Doctrines of essential belief and in- 
 stitutions reach the point of fixity both as to fact and 
 as to the forms in which they are expressed. But life 
 has in it no such finality; it is itself a continuous ex- 
 pression of doctrine and institutional truth. In this 
 the life which has entered into history and that which 
 is in the process of living are alike. Biography has 
 this advantage over history, except where history itself 
 is only a species of biography. 
 
 The earlier history of American Methodism is easily 
 and naturally divisible into three periods, each period
 
 Introduction. 3 
 
 represented by a name that must survive as long as 
 the Wesleyan movement has a record or a represent- 
 ative on this continent. Asbury, ]^IcKendree, and 
 Soule are the trio of mighty names in which close the 
 details of a record as heroic and as potent for destiny 
 as any written in the uninspired annals of the race. 
 It would be a profitless task to determine which of 
 these was the greatest or which accomplished the 
 greatest end in his living. They rather make a unity 
 in the history which they wrought. The story of one 
 cannot be told without reciting material facts in the 
 lives of the other two. Their services covered well 
 the years of a century, but the witness of the first 
 overlaps the witness of the others so as to give a view 
 of the three standing in the same line of vision. 
 
 Providence fulfilled itself and fulfilled the ethnic 
 and spiritual needs of life on this continent in the 
 selection of these three men to lead the fortunes of the 
 greatest religious movement w^hich the continent has 
 known. The first, an Englishman, with the religious 
 prejudice of Anglicanism, was a type of one of the 
 dominant elements in early racial America; the sec- 
 ond, a Virginian, embodied the acquired instinct of 
 religious freedom and the political aspirations charac- 
 teristic of the colonists and their offspring; while the 
 third, a New Englander, mingled Puritan predilections 
 with atavistic Norman qualities and represented the 
 best-developed type of later x\merican life. Here was 
 the whole religious and social life of the continent 
 rolled into the three patriarchs of early Methodism; 
 and these, in their turn, were by Providence rolled into
 
 4 Life of WiUiam McKcndree. 
 
 a unity of thought and action reaching- through prac- 
 tically a century of time. 
 
 The privilege of treating at this day of the deeds of 
 the second of this triad of early American Methodist 
 leadership is one to be coveted for the reason that it 
 furnishes the vantage for a backward and a forward 
 sweep of vision. It will be a pleasure to discover how 
 this volume has improved its opportunity. John ^lor- 
 ley has, in his life of Gladstone, written a philosophical 
 history of England in the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century. He could not escape this chance, being true 
 to his subject. The modern bishop of the Church, in 
 sketching the career of his illustrious predecessor, has, 
 in various connections, effectively laid bare the secret 
 vitalities of that body of constitutional and adminis- 
 trative life known as historic ^Methodism. The value 
 of this service can be better calculated and will be bet- 
 ter understood after a generation has tried the contents 
 of this volume. 
 
 The aim of the present revival of study in ^lethodist 
 biography has been not only to certainly find the 
 sources and trace the course of authority in our eccle- 
 siasticism, but more particularly to find the fountains 
 and inspirational causes of that exceptional spiritual 
 life which so long characterized Methodism and ef- 
 fectively to commend it to the generations of to-day. 
 
 Personal experience has always been the true expos- 
 itive force in the history of religion. This force was 
 the characteristic manifestation of early ^Methodism, 
 which formulated no new doctrine and, at its beginning, 
 contemplated no ecclesiastical departure. It is always 
 to be remembered, too, that Methodism took its con-
 
 Introduction, 5 
 
 fession out of the body of an older symbol; but it is 
 also to be remembered that it mightily interpreted old 
 doctrines and old formulas in the lives and testimony 
 of its adherents. In this it completed both the letter 
 and the spirit of the Reformation of the sixteenth 
 century, which was a correction of doctrine rather 
 than a revival of spiritual life. Justification by faith 
 as a doctrinal formula described the ultimate advance 
 of Luther's teachings, while the witness of the Spirit as 
 a vital experience described the goal of the Wesleyan 
 revival. 
 
 The necessity for constantly reverting to this expe- 
 rience as a precedent for all Christian living, and also 
 the possibility of continually expanding it in the hope 
 of uncovering new incentives to seek it and new ave- 
 nues of approach to it, are additional reasons for these 
 latest essays in Methodist biography. The reader is 
 confidently advised that the author of this new biog- 
 raphy of the first native American bishop has not 
 failed to cultivate this possibility. 
 
 A new and valid reason for the present writing Is 
 the relation of the subject to the past fortunes and 
 future hopes of that branch of Methodism whose hab- 
 itat is in the lands so industriously cultivated by this 
 first American patriarch; and, indeed, the other two 
 mighty ones referred to are not less legitimately 
 claimed in this relationship. Not only Is the earliest 
 spring of historic Methodism traceable to these zones, 
 but here, and under the superintendency of these men, 
 were its earliest victories planned and achieved. The 
 time has come, therefore, to set all these things in the 
 light of a narrative which shall be both unequivocal as
 
 6 Life of William McKcndree. 
 
 to these claims and also just and discriminating in 
 favor of other relationships in the wider house of 
 Methodism. In a word, this new series of biographies 
 especially seeks to present a catholic story of the days 
 of genesis and heroism, one that shall live on and, 
 while teaching the equities of history, shall minister to 
 its unities in a future of possibilities already at our 
 door. It is not to acquit myself of a service of friend- 
 ship nor to discharge a conventional office, but rather 
 to speak out of the fullness of appreciation and as the 
 result of critical measurement, that I ascribe to this 
 volume the quality of justness, discrimination, and 
 catholicit}* in all these matters. I count it a great 
 happiness to have been accorded the privilege of in- 
 diting this foreword and of commending this volume 
 to the perusal and study of all our people. 
 
 Horace M. Du Bose. 
 Atlanta, G.\-, July 20, 19 14,
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. pagk. 
 Parentage, Birth, and Early Life 9 
 
 Chapter II. 
 Genesis of Religious Experience l^ 
 
 Chapter III. 
 Call to the Ministry 33 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 Four Years a Circuit Preacher 39 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Four Years More on the Circuit, with an Episode 48 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 First Five Years in the Presiding Eldership 66 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Set over the Forces in the Great West 73 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky 88 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 Elected to the Episcopacy 106 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 First Quadrennium in the Episcopacy 120 
 
 (7)
 
 .8 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 Chapter XI. Pagb. 
 At His First General Conference as a Bishop 139 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 In Full Swing I49 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 Senior Bishop of the Church 161 
 
 Chapter XIV. 
 Defending the Constitution I73 
 
 Chapter XV. 
 Nearing Port. I97
 
 LIFE OF WILLIAM McKENDREE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Parentage, Birth, and Early Life. 
 
 William McKendree, the first native American 
 bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born 
 in King WilUam County, Va., forty miles northeast 
 of the city of Richmond, July 6, 1757. He was the 
 eldest of the eight children of John and Mary Mc- 
 Kendree, an intelligent, self-respecting, and God- 
 fearing couple, who belonged to what is sometimes 
 condescendingly called "the middle class of Virgin- 
 ians." If anything at all has been preserved concern- 
 ing his remoter progenitors^ it has wholly escaped my 
 research. The family name, however, shows that they 
 were of Scotch origin, though, as was the case with 
 thousands of others of the same blood, they probably 
 reached America by way of the north of Ireland. 
 These transplanted Scotchmen are a masterful race. 
 Wherever they have gone they have left an Indelible 
 mark. What they have contributed to the life and 
 growth of the United States in particular can scarcely 
 be overestimated. 
 
 John McKendree does not appear to have been, ex- 
 cept in the matter of his moral and religious probity, 
 a very uncommon man. He was one of the undistin- 
 guished multitude of faithful souls whose names, 
 though not known In the earth, are written In heaven. 
 By vocation he was a planter, owning his own lands 
 
 (9)
 
 10 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 and a few domestic servants, and making always a 
 comfortable subsistence; but never accumulating any 
 considerable fortune, nor achieving social or political 
 eminence. Bishop Paine describes him as follows: 
 ''With strong domestic aflfections, and without any de- 
 sire for notoriety, he led a humble, industrious, and re- 
 ligious life." Removing in 1764 to James City County, 
 and again in 1770 to Greenville County, he finally, in 
 1810, migrated with his youngest son, Dr. James Mc- 
 Kendree, and three other of his children to Sumner 
 County, in the then young State of Tennessee. From 
 this last of his earthly homes, which was the free gift 
 of the generous and large-hearted Rev. James Gwin — 
 a good farm of three hundred acres — he passed to his 
 heavenly home on his eighty-eighth birthday, October, 
 1810. 
 
 [Mary McKendree, whose maiden name, strangely 
 enough, is not known, was a woman of great strength 
 and gentleness of character. In every respect she was 
 fit: to be the mother of her famous son. Becoming an 
 invalid in 1769, she was confined to her room till her 
 death, twenty years later. But even under so great a 
 disability she continued the wise management of her 
 household affairs and looked well to the rearing of her 
 children. The exquisite sweetness of her temper, to 
 which there is abundant testimony, left an impression 
 on their minds which neither time nor change could 
 ever obliterate. 
 
 Speaking of the McKendrees in general. Bishop 
 Paine says that one of their most marked characteris- 
 tics was their strong family love. In the course of 
 years they became widely scattered in Virginia, Ten-
 
 Parentage, Birth, and Early Life, il 
 
 nessee, Alabama, and South Carolina; but they never 
 lost their intense affection for one another. Bishop 
 Asbury in a notable passage in his Journal tells how 
 he and Bishop McKendree once became the guests of 
 the latter's younger brother, Thomas, in South Caro- 
 lina, and dwells on the glad welcome and ''the noble 
 feast" which they received. 
 
 The life of an average Virginia family In the days 
 of which I write was rather colorless and uneventful. 
 More than a hundred and fifty years had elapsed since 
 the first English settlers came to Jamestown. Pioneer 
 conditions had largely passed away. Except on the 
 Western frontiers, toward the Blue Ridge and the 
 Alleghanies, Indian wars, with their excitements, were 
 things of the past, though as late as 1770 Lord Dun- 
 more sent his famous expedition under Andrew Lewis 
 to Point Pleasant, on the Ohio River. Society, for the 
 most part, had settled down to an easy and common- 
 place way of getting on. There were only a few 
 towns, and they were small and insignificant. The 
 great majority of the white people resided on their 
 own farms and tilled the fields with their own hands. 
 Negro slavery had become a fixed institution, but had 
 taken on a gentler form than anywhere else in the 
 world. Not one-fourth of the people were slave- 
 holders. If riches did not abound, poverty was like- 
 wise rare. 
 
 There was much good social fellowship, which was 
 always accompanied by an abundance of eating and 
 often by entirely too much drinking. The word 
 "neighbors" meant all those living in a day's horse- 
 back ride of one another. They were much given to
 
 12 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 the interchange of hospitahties. It was customary to 
 keep open house both for friends and for strangers. 
 Nobody but a churl turned a visitor away from his 
 door. A traveler of decent appearance might pass from 
 one side of the colony to the other and scarcely be 
 taxed for a night's lodging. 
 
 Here and there lines of social cleavage were more 
 or less distinctly drawn. In the Tidewater region es- 
 pecially and along the Upper A'alley of the James a few 
 great families, nearly all of which had crossed the 
 ocean during Cromw^ell's time, exercised a sort of 
 natural sway over their several communities. But in 
 spite of all that has been said about the dominancy of 
 these Cavaliers, the fact is that in the body and bulk of 
 her citizenship and in the great currents of her life 
 \^irginia was and has always remained essentially 
 democratic. The most of the men who followed George 
 Washington and the most of those who followed 
 Robert E. Lee were what in England would have been 
 called yeomen. It is important to bear this in mind, as 
 the contrary impression has been made by many 
 writers, from one of whom I shall presently quote. 
 
 Educational opportunities in \^irginia, except for 
 the wealthy, were not good. In all America there 
 were only three or four colleges, and in \'irginia only 
 one. Even ordinary schools were few and generally 
 of inferior quality. Those who could aflford it usually 
 employed private tutors for their sons out of England. 
 Mr. Dempster and Parson Ward, of Thackeray's great 
 novel, are types each of a large class. Many young 
 men besides Henry and George Warrington were sent 
 across the sea to finish their studies and polish their
 
 Parentage, Birth, and Early Life. 13 
 
 manners. Let us hope that the most of them fell into 
 better company than those two brothers encountered. 
 While many good private libraries could be found in 
 the homes of the richer folk, it must be confessed that 
 books were inaccessible to the masses. Of newspapers, 
 which are now regarded as indispensable vehicles for 
 the dissemination of intelligence, there were none at 
 all; but of oral discussion, both in private circles and 
 in public places, there was a great deal, and it wrought 
 largely on the public mind. 
 
 Even George Washington grew up with a limited 
 range of book knowledge; and it is not strange that 
 William McKendree should have acquired still less. 
 To the end of his life, though he learned to speak his 
 mother tongue w4th precision and force, he would no 
 doubt have been bothered by an examination in gram- 
 mar, and he often took uncommon liberties with Eng- 
 lish orthography. Who his teachers were, we are no- 
 where told. One of them is handed down to us anony- 
 mously as "a vain man," not much better, probably, 
 than an Irish hedge-master. Seventy-five years ago 
 there was a tradition still floating through the Church 
 to the effect that McKendree was a dull, slow boy' ; but 
 his best biographer discredits it, and says : "While it 
 may have comforted many a lazy and unpopular young 
 preacher, it was probably without foundation in fact." 
 
 When McKendree was born, the first breath of dis- 
 content with the colonial policies of Great Britain had 
 scarcely passed over the land. The most of the Vir- 
 ginia people still cherished a loving reverence for old 
 England, called it "home," and gloried greatly in the 
 fact that they themselves were men of English speech
 
 14 ^ifc of II' ill ia in McKciidrcc. 
 
 and blood. In all his wide domain King George had 
 no more loyal subjects than they. Any slightest sug- 
 gestion of rebellion or revolution would have been 
 cried down by them as a piece of treasonable folly. 
 Lut events were shaping themselves beyond the knowl- 
 edge or will of men. There is an element in the growth 
 of nations that operates as inevitably, yet often as in- 
 visibly, as gravitation — the element of Divine purpose. 
 In her season of apparent repose and inactivity Vir- 
 ginia was quietly nursing the strength which she would 
 sorely need in the coming contest for freedom, a con- 
 test in which she bore so conspicuous and glorious a 
 part. 
 
 It is a little off the track of my theme, but I cannot 
 forbear to reproduce here from Senator Cabot Lodge's 
 *'Life of Washington" a passage which, barring the 
 undue emphasis put on the aristocratic spirit of the 
 colony, is both true and illuminating: ''There was 
 nothing languishing or effeminate about the \"irginia 
 planter. He was a robust man, quite ready to fight or 
 to work when the time came, and well fitted to deal 
 w'ith affairs when he was needed. He was a free- 
 handed, hospitable, generous being, not much given 
 to study or thought, but thoroughly public-spirited 
 and keenly alive to the interests of Virginia. Above 
 all things else, he was an aristocrat set apart by the 
 dark line of race, color, and hereditary servitude, as 
 proud as the proudest Austrian with his endless quar- 
 terings, as sturdy and vigorous as an English yeo- 
 man, and as jealous of his rights and privileges as any 
 baron who stood by John at Runnymede. To this 
 aristocracy, careless and indolent, given to rough
 
 Parentage, Birth^ and Early Life. 15 
 
 pleasures, and indifferent to the finer and higher sides 
 of Hfe, the call came, as it comes to all men sooner or 
 later ; and in response they gave their country soldiers, 
 statesmen, and jurists of the highest order and fit for 
 the great work they were asjced to do. We must go 
 back to Athens to find another instance of a society 
 so small in numbers and yet capable of such an out- 
 burst of ability and force. They were of sound Eng- 
 lish stock with a slight admixture of Huguenot, the 
 best blood of France ; and although for a centurs^ and 
 a half they had seemed to stagnate in the New World, 
 they were strong and faithful and effective beyond the 
 measure of ordinary races when the hour of peril and 
 trial was at hand." 
 
 It was such a civilization as this, speaking generally, 
 that constituted the background of McKendree's life. 
 In all that the word can mean, he was a true Virginian, 
 though he never paraded the fact. Before he had quite 
 passed his eighteenth year, the War of the Revolution 
 broke out. In less than a generation Virginia had en- 
 tirely changed front. In spite of her ancient loyalty 
 she was the first of all the colonies, in the "Resolves" 
 proposed by Patrick Henry in 1765, to proclaim un- 
 dying resistance to the unjust exactions of the British 
 Crown and Parliament; and she now threw herself 
 with the greatest spirit into the armed conflict, rejoic- 
 ing that the supreme leadership in this great emergency 
 had been bestowed upon her favorite son. 
 
 Before the war ended, McKendree joined the army. 
 
 The exact date of his enlistment is in doubt; but the 
 
 fact is beyond dispute that he rose to the rank of 
 
 adjutant, and was present in that capacitv when Corn- 
 2
 
 l6 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 wallis surrendered at Yorktown, being then twenty- 
 four years of age. The probabihties are that he saw, 
 all told, about two or three years' service. The experi- 
 ence that he thus acquired in dealing with men proved 
 of large value to him in coming years. To the end of 
 his life there was something of the soldier and the com- 
 mander in his character. He was in his prime the 
 captain of the itinerant hosts, and rode at the front as 
 one not unused to such a place. But it was only on 
 the rarest occasions, and then with great modesty, that 
 he ever referred to his military career. Nor did he 
 even in extreme old age apply for a pension. He was 
 incapable of putting a market value on his patriotism. 
 Bishop Robert Paine, who was on terms of the closest 
 intimacy with him for many years, acting as his aman- 
 uensis, traveling thousands of miles in his company, 
 and passing over many of the Revolutionary battle 
 fields, says that he never once heard him allude to his 
 own part in the struggle: "In him the soldier of civil 
 liberty was merged into the nobler character of a true 
 and valiant soldier of the Cross. Having done his duty 
 to his country in an emergency, he was contented, and 
 never boasted of the fact." Still, it is a matter of rec- 
 ord that when on a certain occasion in 1807 a company 
 of roughs, led by a Major Somebody, undertook to 
 break up one of his camp meetings on the frontier of 
 Illinois, he announced from the pulpit that he and some 
 of his companions had fought for their country and 
 could not be intimidated or overawed by a show of vio- 
 lence. The hint proved effective, and the roughs re- 
 tired.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 
 
 It is proper to say here what ought perhaps to have 
 been said before, that the state of rehgion in Virginia 
 during and immediately after the Revolutionary War 
 was exceedingly low. The Church of England, it is 
 true, had been from the beginning established by law, 
 but it had never been profoundly loved by the people 
 as a whole. In its most prosperous estate it had ninety- 
 six parishes served by ninety-three ministers. By a 
 policy which seems strange indeed, and which would 
 not now be possible, it had never had a resident bishop. 
 The Bishop of London, to whose diocese the colony 
 belonged, and who exercised a sort of absent juris- 
 diction, was represented on the ground by a com- 
 missary. For fifty years the Rev. Dr. John Blair, a 
 Scotchman of ability and character, to whom Virginia 
 owes a greater debt than she can ever pay, had filled 
 that sub-Episcopal post. However it may be with 
 Churches that hold to a non-Episcopal form of govern- 
 ment, it is at least true that an Episcopal Church with- 
 out a bishop in presence and authority is something of 
 an anomaly and cannot develop in an orderly and 
 healthy fashion. 
 
 When the fighting began, in 1776, a great many of 
 the clergy forsook their flocks and fled to England. 
 It is not at all uncharitable to say that, as far as the 
 most of them were concerned, their room was better 
 than their companv. Their departure was, at anv rate, 
 
 (17)'
 
 1 8 Life of William McKendrcc. 
 
 no great loss to the cause of good religion or good 
 citizenship. Leaving out exceptional cases, they were, 
 both in the matter of character and in the matter of 
 competency, far from measuring up to any proper 
 standard, and would not be tolerated to-day in any 
 Church in America. The Episcopal Church in \'ir- 
 ginia would now exclude them without a moment's 
 hesitation. Not a few of them were given to drinking, 
 gambling, cock-fighting, horse-racing, and many other 
 such improprieties. Not many of them showed any 
 deep sense of concern for the honor of their office or 
 for the souls of their flocks. With such ministers it 
 was certain that the laity would not furnish many 
 shining illustrations of the graces of Christianity. Dr. 
 Hawks, the historian of the Church, says that ^'between 
 the two classes there was a mutual action and reaction 
 of evil ; each probably contributed to make the other 
 
 worse." 
 
 About the only thing in regard to which these lead- 
 ers in Israel showed any great activity was in seeking 
 to repress all forms of dissent. Though not quite so 
 bad in this respect as the New England Puritans, they 
 were still bad enough in all conscience. The testimony 
 of Dr. Hawks is as explicit as words could make 
 it, and it is fully confirmed by many good authorities. 
 Parsons whose daily lives were a shame and a scandal 
 poured out the full measure of ecclesiastical censure 
 and wrath upon Quakers, Presbyterians, and Baptists 
 who were guilty of no offense except that they would 
 not conform to the usages of the Church of England. 
 These good people were dragged before petty magis- 
 trates, insulted, fined, beaten, and imprisoned. The
 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 19 
 
 Baptists, who made their first appearance in the colony 
 as early as 1714 and became very active after 1740, 
 bore the brunt of the persecution, and stood stead- 
 fast as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Nothing re- 
 strained such acts of violence as those just mentioned 
 except a growing public opinion against them. It is 
 not strange that the successors and descendants of 
 those courageous early Baptists have carefully pre- 
 served the keys and bolts of the jails in which so many 
 noble men were confined and from the grated windows 
 of which they preached to the curious multitudes that 
 thronged upon the outside. "Soul liberty" is a great 
 inheritance, especially when purchased at the cost of 
 suffering and shame on the part of one's ancestors. To 
 any one that knows the historic traits of the Presby- 
 terians, who also began their work about 1740, it is 
 hardly necessary to say that they too stood their 
 ground. 
 
 In a letter written in 1764 James Madison, then a 
 youth of fine intelligence and aspiring spirit, says: 
 "Pride, ignorance, and knavery prevail among the 
 priesthood, and vice and wickedness among the laity. 
 This is bad enough, but it is not the worst I have to 
 tell you. That diabolical, hell-conceived principle of 
 persecution rages among some ; and to their eternal in- 
 famy the clergy furnish their full quota of imps for 
 such purposes. There are at this time in the adjacent 
 county five or six well-meaning men in close jail for 
 publishing their religious sentiments, which in the main 
 are very orthodox." One of the three things that 
 Thomas Jefiferson ordered to be carved on his tomb- 
 stone was the fact that Virginia in 1785, under his
 
 20 Life of William McKendree, 
 
 leadership, enacted a statute for religious freedom. On 
 such an achievement he had full right to congratulate 
 himself. Massachusetts did not take the same step till 
 far along in the nineteenth century. 
 
 But there is another side to this dismal picture. The 
 Church was not wholly nor irreclaimably bad. It never 
 is so. All sweeping criticisms must be taken, there- 
 fore, with a large grain of salt. There is a fine pas- 
 sage in Isaac Taylor's "Xilus" which is pertinent in 
 this connection : "Dark ages or bright ages, and 
 through times of sluggish movement, and through 
 times of progress and energy-, and while the visible 
 course of the world's affairs is prosperous, and while 
 it is tempestuous, and let Church historians make a 
 good report or let them make an ill report of a cen- 
 tury, still it is always true that a host of souls unre- 
 ported of in any chronicle or census, even a great mul- 
 titude of human spirits, is in training for their places 
 in a kingdom that is not of this world.'' Men like 
 Devereaux Jarratt and Archibald ^IcRoberts in the 
 pulpit, though few in number, were a sign of remain- 
 ing vitality in the Establishment. In the dissenting 
 bodies, moreover, which by the close of the Revolution 
 embraced more than half the people, there were many 
 faithful ministers and more than seven thousand lay- 
 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Here and 
 there in every part of the colony humble homes could 
 be found in which the light of true piety continued to 
 shine. The ^IcKendrees were no doubt included in 
 this class. They were communicants in the Established 
 Church and attended regularly on its ordinances. All 
 the indications are that their lives were pure and whole-
 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 21 
 
 some. The parents were of exemplary morality, and 
 the children escaped contamination from the evil in- 
 fluences by which they were surrounded. Such a 
 family is a sort of saving salt anywhere. A few such 
 would have saved even Sodom. 
 
 In the meantime a new force was entering the colony. 
 The Methodist movement, which began to take on an 
 organized form in England in 1739, had now crossed 
 the Atlantic, eager for new conquests in the Western 
 world. As early as 1766 it had planted itself, through 
 the instrumentality of Philip Embury and some other 
 humble folk of Irish birth but German ancestry, in the 
 city of New York, and probably a little earlier by the 
 enterprise and zeal of Robert Strawbridge, an un- 
 mixed Irishman, in the colony of Maryland. The first 
 itinerant Methodist to enter Virginia was likewise from 
 the Emerald Isle, though born in England. His name 
 was Robert Williams, and he appeared in 1772. Bishop 
 McTyeire says that "he had not an embarrassingly high 
 respect for the Church and clergy," and seems to have 
 thought none the less of him for the fact. But Wesley 
 was a little bit afraid of his hard-headedness, and As- 
 bury never quite recognized his full worth. He labored 
 only three years in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
 and Virginia before being overtaken by death, in 1775. 
 But In that brief period he laid Indestructible founda- 
 tions. When he passed on, he left an organized 
 Church behind him in the last-mentioned field. A 
 sentence from Bishop McTyeire may well be repro- 
 duced at this point : "When the undiscovered grave Is 
 found In which Robert Williams sleeps, no monument 
 that can be raised over it will be too high or too hon-
 
 22 Life of William McKendree, 
 
 orable." Surely all will agree that this judgment is 
 just. Blessed is the man that is first in a great enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Jesse Lee, who knew much of the early history of 
 Methodism at first hand and still more from trust- 
 worthy witnesses, describes the man and his preaching 
 as follows : *'His manner of preaching was well cal- 
 culated to awaken sinners and to encourage penitent 
 mourners. He spared no pains to do good. He fre- 
 quently went to church to hear the Established clergy, 
 and as soon as divine service was ended he would go 
 out of the church and, standing on a stump, block, or 
 log, begin to sing, pray, and then preach to the people. 
 It was common with him after preaching to ask most 
 of the people about the welfare of their souls." He 
 was not tied to any method, but dealt with every situa- 
 tion as circumstances seemed to demand. 
 
 A start once made, Methodism throve wonderfully 
 in that quarter, as it has continued to do till the pres- 
 ent day. At the Conference which met in Philadelphia 
 in 1773 Williams was able to report a membership of 
 one hundred. He was followed later by John King, 
 George Shad ford, Francis Asbury, and others of 
 like spirit. The movement probably reached the 
 McKendrees in about 1775 or 1776. They appear to 
 have given it a prompt and hearty adhesion and were 
 afterwards, therefore, included in that class which 
 came to be known in the State as "old Methodists." 
 The new experience that it brought them of the saving 
 power of Christ made an epoch in their history. 
 Thenceforward the service of God was their chief con- 
 cern, a living and inexhaustible spring of blessedness
 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 23 
 
 and joy. They had been decent and upright folk all 
 their lives. Now they became vital and active Chris- 
 tians. Without at all losing the respectful regard 
 which they had cherished for the Episcopal Church, 
 they at once enrolled themselves in a Methodist class 
 and became gladly subject to the whole Methodist dis- 
 cipline. In due time all the children followed the ex- 
 ample of their parents and made an open profession of 
 faith in Christ. 
 
 That William should be moved with the rest was in- 
 evitable. He had what Tertullian called the animiim 
 naturaliter Christianum, the instinctively Christian 
 temperament. Even as a child, and without any very 
 definite instruction, he had entertained very grave 
 thoughts about God. In a letter written to Bishop 
 Asbury in 1803 he mentions it as a cause for grati- 
 tude that he had always been kept free from gross 
 immoralities and had sworn but one oath. The 
 Bible stories greatly stirred his childish heart and 
 awoke in him the desire to love and please God. At 
 that time he was not far from the kingdom, and needed 
 only proper guidance to bring him into it. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, not even his parents fully realized 
 what was going on within him ; and even had they done 
 so, they were scarcely prepared to deal wisely with his 
 peculiar difficulties. The letter to which I have just 
 referred contains the following paragraph: "1 would 
 frequently seek solitary places in the woods, there fall 
 upon my face, and weep freely while I thought I was 
 talking to Jehovah. This practice I followed till I be- 
 came so serious that I was taken note of. The school- 
 master, who was a vain man and boarded at my
 
 24 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 father's, began to laugh at me and to make remarks, 
 and finally laughed me out of all my seriousness. I 
 then heedlessly pursued the pleasures of the world, 
 and do not remember to have had any more such im- 
 pressions for several years." When will the Christian 
 world fully learn that childhood belongs to Christ ? 
 
 But when the Methodist revival broke out in the 
 community, being then about eighteen or nineteen years 
 of age, he experienced a resurgence in full force of 
 his early religious feelings. His heart, long cold 
 toward God, was again mightily warmed. Many 
 around received the gift of conscious pardon and son- 
 ship, among them, as already said, several members of 
 his own family. But he for some reason fell short of 
 that satisfying attainment. In spite of this fact he re- 
 solved to lead a new life, and united himself with a 
 class on probation as "a seeker." After some time he 
 halted by the way and failed to obtain the prize. His 
 own explanation of it is that he found it difficult to 
 break with his companions, who did not share his re- 
 ligious desires. "Their conduct," he says, "being con- 
 formed to my reformed manners, I continued to enjoy 
 the friendship both of the society and of the world, 
 but in a very imperfect degree. They continued to 
 counteract and impair each other until the love of the 
 world prevailed, and my relish for genuine piety de- 
 parted. I peacefully retired from the society, while 
 my conduct continued to secure their friendship." 
 
 This, however, was not the end. He could not 
 easily shake off the convictions that had found a lodg- 
 ment in his soul. The more he thought himself rid of 
 them, the more they rose up to disturb and distress
 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 25 
 
 him. In the good providence of God he again fell 
 desperately sick and came to what he thought was the 
 door of death. '*I utterly despaired of mercy," he 
 says, ''unless God should be graciously pleased to raise 
 me up from my bed of affliction, and thus grant me an 
 opportunity to see his face. For this I earnestly 
 prayed. But even while it seemed to myself that I was 
 so willing to embrace mercy on any terms, I well re- 
 member a thought that threw me into confusion by 
 showing me my error. The following question was sug- 
 gested: 'If the Lord would raise you up and convert 
 your soul, would you be willing to go and preach the 
 gospel ?' " Though mercifully brought back to life 
 and strength, he failed to make the full surrender, and 
 went away from Christ, as did the rich young man in 
 the gospel. "At last," he adds, "I lost the desire and 
 returned to my old companions and the business of the 
 world." 
 
 In the meantime his service in the army intervened. 
 Everybody knows that a military camp is no good 
 place for beginning or maintaining a Christian life. 
 There have been, it is true, many exceptions to the 
 general rule, but they do not break the force of the 
 rule itself. War is in most cases terribly demoralizing. 
 McKendree was fortunate in not losing his sound 
 moral character while serving his country. Of this 
 fact there Is the best of evidence. But he certainly 
 did lose a large part of his religious sensitiveness and 
 his openness to the influence of the Spirit of God. 
 
 These apparently false and indecisive starts. If taken 
 by themselves, would seem to argue a good deal of 
 natural fickleness of will on the part of young Mc-
 
 26 Life of IVilliam McKendrcc. 
 
 Kendrcc. Yet we must not judge too hastily or con- 
 fidently. Only God knows what goes on in the depths 
 of the human spirit. We read that many of the 
 strongest and steadiest Christians in history took their 
 first steps as the Lord's disciples in the same halting and 
 hesitating fashion, and were long in reaching the point 
 of a complete and irrevocable commitment to Christ. 
 The time was coming, though he himself knew it not, 
 when ^IcKendree would parley no more, but surrender 
 at discretion. When it did come, nothing could sur- 
 pass the whole-heartedness with which he gave him- 
 self up, keeping back nothing for time or eternity, but 
 putting himself with all he had on God's altar. It 
 reminds us of the final crisis in the career of Augus- 
 tine, ^ly readers will pardon me, I am sure, if I dwell 
 on it at some length, for it is the determining point in 
 McKendree's career. The whole volume of his sub- 
 sequent life flowed out from it as from an inexhausti- 
 ble spring. 
 
 The year of our Lord 1787 should be written in 
 red letters in the annals of Methodism. That mighty 
 evangelist John Easter was abroad in the land. He 
 had himself been converted under the preaching of 
 Robert Williams, and was carrying on the true suc- 
 cession in a wonderful way. Like a flame of fire he 
 went round and round the Brunswick Circuit, in which 
 the IMcKendrees then lived. In that single year over 
 one thousand eight hundred persons were converted 
 under his ministry. His gospel became a sort of fresh 
 apologetic for Christianity, for it was in demonstration 
 of the Spirit and of power. Wherever he spoke the 
 whole country turned itself out to hear him, and few
 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 27 
 
 heard who were not convinced of sin. Whole com- 
 munities broke down before him. The results of his 
 preaching can be visibly traced even to the present 
 time. It was no mere blaze of excitement that he 
 kindled. \''ast transformations of character took place 
 under his ministry. There is scarce anything like it 
 outside of Methodist history. The nearest parallel to 
 it is to be found in the great revival of 1800, of which 
 I shall presently speak. 
 
 McKendree was at this time thirty years old, a full- 
 grown man and much set in his ways. While not 
 given to dissipation nor flagrant sin of any sort, he was 
 apparently far from God. Because of a lack of perse- 
 verance, he had lost at least ten years of Christian 
 privilege and opportunity. From a merely human point 
 of view, it was little likely that he w^ould now take the 
 step which he ought to have taken long before. But 
 the unseen Spirit whose operations are as silent as the 
 revolutions of the stars was still at work in the abysses 
 of his nature. 
 
 It came to pass on a certain Sabbath that he visited 
 one of his neighbors who was on the point of going 
 to church to hear a sermon from a Mr. Gibson, a local 
 preacher, but on McKendree's arrival concluded to send 
 a servant with his wife and remain at home. The two 
 friends spent the morning in no very devout way, 
 "drinking wine and reading a comedy." When the 
 good wife returned after considerable delay, she re- 
 ported strange things; how the preacher had brought 
 many to floods of tears, to cries for forgiveness, and 
 to shouts of joy. She also informed them that Mr.
 
 28 Life of William McKendrcc. 
 
 Easter would preach at tlie same place on the following 
 Tuesday. 
 
 What effect this report had on the host we do not 
 know, but we do know what effect it had on Mc- 
 Kendree. "My heart was touched," he tells us, "at 
 her representation. I resolved to seek religion, and 
 began in good earnest to pray for it that evening." 
 That was going at the business in the right way. On 
 Tuesday morning he went to church, "fasting and 
 praying." Mr. Easter's text was: "And this is the 
 condemnation, that light is come into the world, and 
 men loved darkness rather than light, because their 
 deeds were evil." The Holy Spirit gave effect to the 
 message. "From this time," says ^IcKendree, "I was 
 wholly miserable." But a better day was soon to dawn 
 on him. "Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall 
 be comforted." \Mien Mr. Easter returned, a month 
 later, the trembling penitent found his Saviour and 
 entered into rest. The whole great change is thus de- 
 scribed by his own pen : "^ly convictions were re- 
 newed ; they were deep and pungent. The great deep 
 of my heart was broken up, its desperately wicked 
 nature was disclosed, and the awfully ruinous con- 
 sequences clearly appeared. My repentance was sin- 
 cere. I was desirous of salvation, and became willing 
 to be saved upon any terms ; and after a sore and sor- 
 rowful travail of three days, which were employed in 
 hearing Mr. Easter and in fasting and prayer, while 
 that man of God was showing a large congregation the 
 way of salvation by faith with a clearness which at 
 the same time astonished and encouraged me, I ven- 
 tured my all on Ciirist. In a moment my soul was
 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 29 
 
 delivered of a burden too heavy to be borne, and joy 
 instantly succeeded sorrow. For a short space of time 
 I was fixed in silent admiration, giving glory to God 
 for his unspeakable goodness to such an unworthy 
 creature." 
 
 That sounds not unlike the experience of John Wes- 
 ley in Fetter Lane. The tone of the one is identical 
 with that of the other. After one or two brief seasons 
 of trial, in which McKendree was tempted to doubt 
 the reality of his conversion because it seemed too good 
 to be true and too great to have taken place in so short 
 a period of time, he settled down into an attitude of 
 unhesitating faith and joy, never again to be seriously 
 disturbed in regard to the matter of his personal ac- 
 ceptance with God. To the end of his earthly days he 
 looked back with tender gratitude to this particular 
 season of his life when he could first truly say, ''Abba, 
 Father." Blessed indeed is the man who knows that 
 there came to him once an hour when all sense of 
 dread and condemnation fell away from him, and the 
 peace of God which passeth all understanding flowed 
 like a river through his soul. 
 
 The early Methodists were diligently taught to grow 
 in grace and to go on to perfection. Nothing less than 
 this, they were assured, should be the goal of all their 
 striving. While no man, so the instruction ran, could 
 reach it by his own unaided effort, every man might 
 hope to do so by the grace of God. According to Wes- 
 ley's best definition of it, it consists in loving God with 
 all one's heart and soul and mind and strength, and 
 others as one's self; and it is nowise incompatible 
 with the presence of many lingering infirmities, but is
 
 30 Life of William McKendrce, 
 
 incompatible with deliberate and willful sins. That is 
 a Biblical and satisfactory statement. The other state- 
 ment, that it consists in **the absolute extirpation of the 
 roots of inbred sin," is psychological, or assumes to be 
 so, and cannot be verified by any available test. It is 
 better to stick to the doctrine that Christian perfection 
 is Christian love raised to the highest power. If one 
 chooses to call it entire sanctification, there is no objec- 
 tion, provided the terms are duly and fairly weighed 
 and not forced to carry any burden of extra-Biblical 
 meaning. Whether this great attainment is simply 
 the culminating point of growth, at last reaching full 
 maturity, or is the immediate result of a definite act of 
 faith in a given moment of time, was much discussed 
 then and has been debated ever since. Other questions 
 of an incidental character, and not very profitable, w^ere 
 also raised in connection with the main issue. ^len 
 and women whose emotions were more active than 
 their intellects sometimes lost their balance in brooding 
 over it too exclusively. Cases were not rare in which 
 very extravagant professions were blent with very 
 imperfect conduct. These gave the enemy occasion 
 to blaspheme. But the sound and substantial element 
 of Christian truth in the doctrine furnished a sufficient 
 ground for preaching it, and made it, in the language 
 of John Wesley, "the special depositum of Meth- 
 odism." The celebrated Dr. R. W. Dale, one of the 
 foremost theologians of the past generation, says : "It 
 contains a volume of ethical implications, the measure 
 of which has not yet been fully taken." 
 
 Not long after McKendree's conversion, under the 
 eflFective stimulus of sermons and of public and private
 
 Genesis of Religious Experience. 31 
 
 exhortations, he began to reach out with all the eager- 
 ness of his renewed heart for this great blessing. He 
 hungered and thirsted for it. He groaned after it. 
 Day and night he gave himself to the pursuit of it. 
 Once more I shall suffer him to speak for himself: 
 "The more I sought the blessing of sanctification, the 
 more I felt the need of it. In its pursuit my soul grew 
 in grace and in the faith that overcomes the world. 
 One morning I walked into the field, and while I was 
 musing such an overwhelming power of the Divine 
 Being overshadowed me as I had never experienced 
 before. Unable to stand, I sank to the ground more 
 than filled with transport. My cup ran over, and I 
 shouted aloud." 
 
 Let whoever will undertake to explain an experi- 
 ence like that as something that began and ended in 
 McKendree's own mind. I cannot be guilty of such 
 irreverence. Neither have I any desire to explain it 
 in terms of a technical theology. The only thing that 
 a believer can say is that God was in it. It did not 
 terminate in itself, but left an everlasting impress on 
 the character of McKendree, and showed itself there- 
 after in all manner of holiness and uprightness of con- 
 versation. An experience which vindicates itself in 
 that way cannot be lightly put aside as of no real re- 
 ligious importance. This great baptism of the Spirit, 
 not breaking in on him without antecedent conditions, 
 but coming in answer to prayer and faith, was of tre- 
 mendous significance to the young and ardent Chris- 
 tian. He never forgot it. Of the lonely field in which 
 he wandered on that eventful morning, he could truly 
 say: "This is none other than the house of God, and 
 3
 
 32 Life of IVilUam McKcndree. 
 
 this is the gate of heaven." Once and again as he 
 moved farther on the way he received similar displays 
 and attestations of grace. As v^e read of them in these 
 colder times we are struck with a sense of awe and 
 wonder. But really we ought not to be surprised by 
 them. If God is the living God and the Father of the 
 souls of men, there is nothing strange nor irrational 
 in his coming to them in the sweet and awful dis- 
 closures of his love. He has not reared any barriers 
 between himself and the creatures whom he has made 
 in his own image. Has not every true Christian felt 
 at one time or another the personal touch of God on 
 him ? Yea, has not every one in his moments of special 
 surrender been almost overborne by the tides of God's 
 life flowing in upon him? Call It perfect love, entire 
 sanctlficatlon, or what you will, it is the experience 
 in full and glorious measure of the powers of the world 
 to come.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Call to the Ministry. 
 
 The original and only true method of propagating 
 the gospel may be gathered from John i. 35-51. On 
 the day following his baptism Jesus was passing 
 through the throng that lined the banks of the Jordan. 
 When John the Baptist observed him, he said to two 
 of his own disciples who were standing by: "Behold 
 the Lamb of God." The disciples, so the simple nar- 
 rative runs, ''heard him speak, and they followed 
 Jesus," lingering in his presence for the few remain- 
 ing hours of the day. One of the two was Andrew 
 of Bethsaida, the brother of Simon Peter. He too, as 
 the story discloses, was a man of quick impulses. *'He 
 first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him. 
 We have found the Messias. And he brought him to 
 Jesus." What else could he have done that would have 
 been so natural and appropriate? The next day a 
 similar incident occurred between Philip and Na- 
 thanael. The kingdom of Christ spreads by the spon- 
 taneous activity of those who have already become its 
 subjects. All Christian history is only the exhibition 
 of this simple fact. The instinctive inclination of every 
 newborn Christian is to communicate the glad tidings 
 to his kinsmen, friends, and neighbors. In no respect 
 did Methodism more nearly resemble primitive Chris- 
 tianity than in the evangelistic temper that character- 
 ized its first adherents. It was this that gave It such 
 expansive vigor and caused it to spread so rapidly 
 over the land. N"ot the ministers alone, but also mul- 
 titudes of the laity, men and women alike, threw them- 
 
 (33)
 
 34 Life of William McKcndree. 
 
 selves with the greatest possible zeal into the work of 
 gaining fresh converts. The prayer of Moses that all 
 the Lord's people might be prophets received then a 
 large fulfillment. 
 
 It was altogether sure that young McKendree, being 
 such a man as he was, and living in such an atmos- 
 phere as that which surrounded him, should at once 
 desire to bestir himself for the salvation of others. 
 We have his own testimony that his heart burned 
 within him when he considered the irreligiousness of 
 many of his acquaintances. Almost without knowing 
 what he was doing, and simply following the generous 
 impulses that rose up in his spirit, he began to pray, 
 to exhort, to teach, finding, what many have since 
 found, that his apprehension of his sonship toward God 
 had brought him an unknown gift of utterance. As 
 he himself said: "My heart was enlarged, and I saw 
 more clearly than ever the danger of an unconverted 
 state. For such (unawakened) persons I prayed with 
 anxious care. Sometimes, when called on to pray in 
 public, my soul would get in an agony, and the Lord 
 would in great compassion pour out his Holy Spirit. 
 Souls were convicted and converted, and Zion rejoiced 
 abundantly in those days. Without a thought of 
 preaching I began to tell my acquaintances what the 
 Lord had done for me. It had its effect, and lasting 
 impressions were made. Thus was I imperceptibly led 
 on till the preachers and the people began to urge me 
 tc speak more publicly." 
 
 When the thought of formally entering the ministry 
 was thus thrust upon McKendree's mind, he was much 
 perplexed by it. The possibility of disobeying the Di-
 
 Call to the Ministry, 35 
 
 vine will troubled him greatly ; but the danger of run- 
 ning without a call was equally repugnant to him. At 
 times he would be almost ready to say : "Here am I ; 
 send me." But when he reflected on the difficult and 
 weighty responsibilities of the ministerial office and 
 considered the scantiness and inadequacy of his own 
 equipment, he drew back. While he was in this con- 
 fused state of mind, his father, discerning his condi- 
 tion and surmising the real cause of it, said to him one 
 day as they were sitting at the table: "William, has 
 not the Lord called you to preach the gospel? I be- 
 lieve he has, and I charge you not to quench the Spirit." 
 These solemn words, coming from such a source at 
 such a time, impressed him greatly and no doubt helped 
 him to reach a right conclusion. 
 
 A little later, when he was quite ill, Mr. Easter, to 
 whom he was already so much indebted, came to see 
 him, imploring the Lord to raise him up to health and 
 strength and then to thrust him out as a laborer in 
 the vineyard. With renewed submissiveness and much 
 fasting and prayer he looked to God for direction, and 
 was not disappointed. The direction came to him, as 
 he himself in his later years always thought, through 
 the active but unsolicited intervention of Christian 
 friends. And why not so? The mind of the Church 
 is often the medium through which the mind of the 
 Lord is made known. The Church may not properly 
 issue a call to preach. That is a prerogative which the 
 Lord has expressly reserved in his own lands. But 
 the Church must test all those who profess to have 
 been called, and determine whether their profession is 
 genuine. And her jud'^Tncrtt is never to be despised.
 
 36 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 About nine months after !McKendree*s conversion, 
 and while he was Hstening with an open ear and a 
 devout spirit for the \'oice from on high, he was in- 
 vited by Mr. Easter to attend in his company the ap- 
 proaching session of the Mrginia Conference, which 
 was to meet in the early summer of 1788 in the city 
 of Petersburg, about twenty-five miles from Richmond. 
 Esteeming himself greatly honored by such a request, 
 and hoping to get both pleasure and profit from the 
 journey, he promptly consented to go. But for several 
 days after reaching Petersburg he saw little or nothing 
 of the Conference, which always sat at that time with 
 closed doors. When, however, the appointments were 
 about to be announced, he was invited to come and 
 hear them. As he had never been present on an occa- 
 sion of the like kind, he was naturally more or less 
 curicrus about it. The writer of these lines, now nearly 
 half advanced in his seventh decade, has never yet for- 
 gotten the thrill of interest that swept through his 
 spirit when he saw the spectacle for the first time, nor 
 the deep feeling of awe when, a few years later, he 
 himself first lined up to get his own marching orders. 
 He expects to carry these memories into eternity. 
 
 McKendree supposed that he was entering the Con- 
 ference room as a visitor and guest. To his great 
 wonder he found out that he had been received into 
 the traveling connection and sent as assistant preacher 
 or "helper" to the Mecklenburg Circuit. He had not 
 been recommended by any Quarterly Conference. He 
 had not even been licensed to preach. He had not 
 himself been consulted on the subject. Pie was not 
 vet sure of his vocation. Xothine was ever more in-
 
 Call to the Ministry. 37 
 
 formal or irregular. But the need of men was great 
 and seemed to justify emergent measures. McKendree, 
 moreover, was not entirely unknown. Some of the 
 ablest ministers in the Conference were well acquainted 
 with him and his family. They judged him a "safe 
 case" and cordially commended him to the whole body. 
 So without more ado he was started on that wonder- 
 ful career which was to carry him over the continent as 
 a laborer and a leader in the Lord's host, and was to 
 end only with his triumphant death, more than half a 
 century later. It used to be told that Bishop Robert 
 Paine, one of the strongest and noblest men that ever 
 adorned the episcopal office, was likewise brought into 
 the ministry by a very short route. When he came up 
 to the Annual Conference, his parents being Baptists, 
 he had never been baptized. But neither this fact nor 
 any other lack of technical preparation proved a bar 
 to his being accepted. Such apparently lawless pro- 
 ceedings are not to be taken as a precedent. That the 
 issue was satisfactory in the cases of these two eml- 
 ment men is no argument for a general neglect of pre- 
 scribed methods and usages. It must be remembered, 
 too, that there was a careful preliminary scrutiny of 
 the moral and religious character of McKendree and 
 Paine. That is, after all, the main thing. 
 
 How was McKendree himself affected by this sud- 
 den and unexpected turn of events ? He says : "Hav- 
 ing been dismissed, I was walking in another room 
 (the Conference sat In a private dwelling )p when my 
 presiding elder came in and, discovering my agitation, 
 took me In his arms and said : While you were stand- 
 ing before the Conference I believed that God showed
 
 38 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 me he had a work for you to do. Don't deceive me.' 
 This had the most happy effect. It determined my un- 
 settled mind. I had only wanted to know what was 
 right, to do it as well as I could. I had the fullest con- 
 fidence in the preachers ; and in reflecting on the charac- 
 ter and judgment of those who had recommended me, 
 strengthened with what the presiding elder with flow- 
 ing tears had just said to me, I resolved to reject my 
 doubts, submit to their judgment, take the work to 
 which I was appointed, and do as well as I could. 
 Thus after more than eight months of painful suspense 
 my heart was fixed, and I set out for my circuit." 
 
 This last clause has a pleasant sound. IMounted on 
 a good horse (for he would never ride an inferior one), 
 his saddlebags well packed with his limited wardrobe 
 and his Bible and hymn book and other necessary 
 things, the farewell kisses of the home folks on his lips, 
 he "set out" across the country, across the State, over 
 to\vering mountains and turbulent rivers, and through 
 trackless forests, south to the land of the palmetto 
 and the long-leaved pine, north to the Great Lakes, 
 west to the Father of Waters and beyond, and east to 
 the last extremities of New England. Nor did he halt 
 nor break his gait till increasing years and gather- 
 ing infirmities made it impossible for him to go farther. 
 He "set out for his circuit" first, but kept his eye ever 
 beyond all things visible and temporal on the city which 
 hath the fotmdations. O brave-hearted and modest 
 young man, trembling at thy own weakness, but trust- 
 ing in One who never fails, the angel of the Lord rode 
 with thee on that day, though thou sawest not the 
 shining of his face nor heard the sound of his voice!
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Four Years a Circuit Preacher. 
 
 In his first appointment as helper, or junior preacher, 
 on Mecklenburg Circuit, McKendree was in most re- 
 spects very fortunate. The presiding elder of the dis- 
 trict was James O'Kelley, one of the oldest itinerants 
 in the service, an able and effective preacher, and in 
 his best days ranking next to Asbury himself in public 
 esteem. At that time, though he was already beginning 
 to show marked eccentricities of character, he had not 
 yet been betrayed into those schismatic follies which 
 have ever since obscured the greatness of his name. 
 The preacher in charge of the circuit was Philip Cox, 
 an Englishman, some years resident in America, pro- 
 foundly and fervently religious, endowed with signal 
 gifts of evangelism, and leaving a shining track behind 
 him wherever he went. He was particularly noticeable 
 for his zeal in the distribution of religious literature, 
 and was the first traveling book steward, or general 
 colporteur, of American Methodism. McKendree 
 speaks of him with the greatest affection as "an in- 
 structor and a father." The Mecklenburg people were 
 of a superior quality. In general culture and in sound 
 piety they were worthy of praise. Many of them had 
 been Methodists since the days of Robert Williams, 
 and took a great delight In smoothing the way of the 
 young preacher. It was well for him to make a start 
 under such favorable conditions, for he was constitu- 
 tionally timid and bashful and needed all the help that 
 
 (39)
 
 40 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 he could get. In a letter written long afterwards he 
 says : "It looked to me as if they wished to bear a part 
 of the cross for me. On this circuit there were many 
 deeply experienced Christians by whose walk and con- 
 versation I profited much. I hope I shall never forget 
 how sweetly they used to talk of the triumphs of grace 
 and the love of Jesus." 
 
 Even with the encouragement of such noble Chris- 
 tian friends McKendree once in a while suffered dis- 
 comfiture. Dr. Stevens says: "At one of his appoint- 
 ments, after singing and prayer, he took his text and 
 attempted to look at his audience; but such was his 
 embarrassment that he could not lift his eyes from the 
 Bible till he had finished his sermon. After the ser- 
 mon, his host at the appointment left the house, sup- 
 posing the preacher would follow him ; but not seeing 
 him, he returned to the church, and there found him 
 seated on the lowest step of the pulpit stairs. He in- 
 vited him to go home with him. McKendree said in a 
 mournful tone: 'I am not fit to go home with any- 
 body.' " Is there any Methodist minister anywhere in 
 the world who has not sometimes felt just that way? 
 
 The following year McKendree was sent to Cumber- 
 land Circuit, with John Barker as preacher in charge. 
 Bishop Paine says that "this field of labor lay on James 
 River and principally in Washington County." How 
 the Bishop, usually so accurate, could have lapsed into 
 so serious an error, I do not know. Washington 
 County, Va., is on the extreme western border of the 
 State, next to the Tennessee line. The James River 
 does not touch it by at least two hundred miles. By 
 some curious slip of the pen the Bishop substituted
 
 Four Years a Circuit Preacher. 41 
 
 Washington for Cumberland. The James River people 
 were also intelligent and hospitable to a marked de- 
 gree. The lines had again fallen to McKendree in 
 pleasant places. But at the end of six months he was 
 returned to Mecklenburg. Such frequent changes 
 were too common in those days to excite any remark. 
 They constituted the rule rather than the exception. 
 The fact that McKendree was able to take the back 
 track shows that he had left a good name behind him. 
 
 By his diary and by information from other sources 
 we are able to follow him quite closely during these 
 two initial years and to see what manner of life he led. 
 He gave himself up with great zeal to the study of the 
 Holy Scriptures and of other good books. He literally 
 prayed without ceasing. In the quietness of his owm 
 chamber, as he walked in the fields and the forests, 
 and as he rode by the way, he lifted up his soul unto 
 God. The early morning hours, "a great while before 
 day," bore frequent witness to his devotions. Often 
 in the middle of the night he rose from bed to fall upon 
 his knees. He was much given to fasting, and, in fact, 
 sometimes carried it almost to the limit of unwise 
 asceticism. We find him once raising the inquiry as to 
 whether a Christian man ought ever to laugh. Yet 
 the dominant note In his life was one of joy. At times 
 he received overwhelming manifestations of the Holy 
 Spirit, which prostrated him In humility and love and 
 speechless awe before God. His diligence never 
 flagged. He preached nearly every day to all sorts of 
 audiences, in all sorts of places ; led the classes as he 
 went around the circuit; visited the sick, encouraged 
 the penitent, and edified the saints. To do the whole
 
 42 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 work of a Alethodist preacher was his supreme aim. 
 He could have truly said, as Wesley said long before 
 him : ''Leisure and I have parted company." 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that from the earliest begin- 
 nings of his ministry he showed a lively interest in the 
 spiritual welfare of the colored people, preaching to 
 them whenever opportunity afforded and otherwise 
 seeking to do them good. From conviction he was op- 
 posed to slavery and would have been glad to see it 
 wiped out had it been possible to do so by rational and 
 peaceable means. But there is no proof that he at any 
 time coincided with the radical views of Bishop Coke 
 or was ever willing to foster a social revolution to se- 
 cure the freedom of the colored people. He was the 
 last man to approve a program of reformation by as- 
 sassination or to take any part in the canonization of 
 that bold and bloody murderer whose soul is still 
 "marching on" in the disordered imaginations of his 
 followers and admirers. I am saying this here and 
 now to avoid the necessity of saying it later. 
 
 ^IcKendree's profiting in his studies and other 
 labors appeared unto all men. He grew steadily in 
 grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 His character, always serious and thoughtful, acquired 
 increased depth and strength. The Church was much 
 quickened under his ministry, and sinners were con- 
 verted unto God. There was nothing spectacular nor 
 dramatic in his methods. Nobody was astonished by 
 the rapidity of his development. He did not come up, 
 like Jonah's gourd, in a single night. Yet even in the 
 beginning he gave the promise of those qualities as a 
 preacher and an administrator that in his maturer man-
 
 Four Years a Circuit Preacher, 43 
 
 hood drew the attention of the nation. While his rise 
 was by no means rapid, it was steady. The ground 
 that he once gained he kept. He was not a flaming evan- 
 gehst hke John Easter. The multitudes did not throng 
 and press upon him as they did later upon Bascom. 
 But as time went on he had increasingly good au- 
 diences. Those who came once to hear him were likely 
 to come again. He proclaimed the simple truth of the 
 gospel in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. 
 The Lord gave him souls as the sign and seal of his 
 ministry. All the confusing doubts that he had felt 
 about the reality of his call vanished away, and he at 
 last rejoiced in the satisfying certainty that he was in 
 the track of duty. 
 
 At the Conference which met at Petersburg June 14, 
 1790, McKendree, having accomplished his probation, 
 was admitted into full connection, and was likewise 
 elected and ordained deacon. His own account of it 
 all is most interesting. Reading it we can easily 
 imagine ourselves back in the little assembly in a pri- 
 vate house and participating in the exercises of the 
 hour. Here is an extract : "Got to Petersburg, found 
 Conference sitting and the young preachers going 
 through their examination, and to my comfort heard 
 eighteen or twenty received without a blemish after 
 standing the time of their probation. In the evening 
 Bishop Asbury read his letters from different quar- 
 ters, which gave accounts of the great work of God 
 going on. The Lord made it a time of sweetness and 
 of power to us in general. At the time of the adjourn- 
 ing of the Conference (for the evening) Mr. Jarratt, 
 an Episcopalian preacher who was with us, went to
 
 44 -^'/^ of U'illia}]i McKendrce. 
 
 prayer, and a time of shouting we had/' I wonder 
 whether any Methodist Conference has ever since 
 fallen to shouting over the praying of an Episcopal 
 minister. The probabilities are that Jarratt prayed 
 without a book. Anyhow, blessings on his memory ! 
 He was the kind friend of the ]\Iethodists when they 
 were but a feeble folk, and his walk and conversation 
 were a pattern which all men could safely follow. 
 
 Another quotation from the diary will not be amiss : 
 "On Tuesday, second day of the Conference, Mr. Jar- 
 ratt preached at eleven o'clock. After preaching, 
 seventeen preachers being elected, they were called and 
 presented to the bishop to be ordained deacons. Such 
 a sight I never saw before. It was indeed a solemn 
 time and seemed to affect the extensive congregation. 
 For my own part, I think I was never thus affected 
 before. I felt fresh desires and stronger resolutions 
 than I ever experienced before to live to God alto- 
 gether. The world this day seemed to be left very far 
 behind and my soul encompassed with light." Strange- 
 ly enough, he does not mention that he himself was one 
 of the seventeen men ordained to the diaconate. Did 
 an excess of modesty prompt this reticence? Or was 
 he simply so filled with the solemn emotions of the 
 hour that he forgot to set down his own name in the 
 story ? 
 
 At the close of the Conference McKendrce was sent 
 to Portsmouth Circuit, Jesse Xicholson in charge, but 
 was removed and spent the latter part of the year with 
 William Spencer on Surry Circuit. His diary for the 
 year reveals nothing extraordinary, but still shows 
 that he was making progress every way : "This was a
 
 Four Years a Circuit Preacher. 45 
 
 year of much comfort to my soul. I found an affec- 
 tionate people, indeed. Many were deeply experienced 
 saints who were a blessing to me. *As iron sharpeneth 
 iron/ so did the conversation of these brethren provoke 
 me to love and good works. I found father, mother, 
 brother, and sister in deed and in truth. It was my 
 meat and drink to employ my spare moments in study. 
 Fasting and prayer were a pleasure. I had an almost 
 uninterrupted heaven below. The work of the Lord 
 prospered in our hands, particularly in the latter part 
 of the year. A considerable number of members was 
 added to the societies." 
 
 There was only one thing that gave him much trou- 
 ble or concern. His presiding elder, James O'Kelley, 
 instead of counseling loyalty to the Church and its 
 government, had become so set against Asbury and 
 those who agreed with him that he spent nearly the 
 whole year spreading dissatisfaction and organizing 
 discontent, and, what is w^orse, did it all in the name of 
 the Lord. McKendree was much under his influence, 
 and suffered from it. Of this more by and by. 
 
 From the Conference which met April 20, 1791, Mc- 
 Kendree was sent to Amelia Circuit. It joined the 
 Cumberland Circuit, on which he had spent a part of 
 his second year. His colleague was John Baldwin. 
 The time for holding the Conference was changed this 
 year from spring till winter, so that he really spent 
 only six months in Amelia, which does not appear to 
 have been marked in any way except by the continued 
 efforts of O'Kelley to thwart Asbury and introduce 
 radical changes into the government of the Church. 
 That sore-headed old preacher had reached the point
 
 46 Life of ll'illiani McKendrcc. 
 
 where he could not be happy except in opposition to 
 the powers that be. **I enjoyed peace of mind," says 
 McKendree, ''and comfortable fellowship with those 
 among whom I labored. We began to have some hope 
 of a General Conference to adjust our conflicting opin- 
 ions, and our fears began to subside." 
 
 There is a constant temptation to quote from the 
 diary. I must make space for at least one or two pas- 
 sages as showing that, despite all disturbances, Mc- 
 Kendree kept very close to God. The date of the 
 first passage is August 4, 1790: ''Rose early; poured 
 out my soul in prayer and praise ; rode to Portsmouth ; 
 met the other preacher, and at twelve o'clock met class ; 
 had a comfortable time. Rode into the country and 
 preached at 4 p.m. The power of the Lord was 
 amongst the people ; deep solemnity rested on the whole 
 congregation ; about twelve or fifteen down crying 
 for mercy. One was converted and appeared to be as 
 happy as a creature can be. Returned to town, preached 
 at eight o'clock, and went to rest at half past ten 
 o'clock, much fatigued in body, but with perfect calm- 
 ness of soul." 
 
 And that of the second is October 10 and 11, 1790: 
 "Sunday. — Rose at 3 a.m. ; family prayer at four, 
 a time of heavenly sweetness to our souls. Went into 
 the lovely fields when the blushing morn is dispersing 
 gloomy night ; breathed the sweet morning air with 
 the love of God in my soul. About sunrise I began and 
 preached to about thirty persons from, 'And the angel 
 said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye 
 seek Jesus, which was crucified : he is not here, for he 
 is risen, as he said.' My dear Master gave me to feel
 
 Four Years a Circuit Preacher, 47 
 
 what I preached. Love feast for the band society fol- 
 lowed. O how the saints did shout and tell the won- 
 ders of redeeming love ! But had a cold time at public 
 meeting." 
 
 ^'Monday. — Rest day. Spent my time in reading, 
 writing, prayer, and meditation, except a little for con- 
 versation witli my brethren. At twelve o'clock in my 
 general prayer for mankind I prayed particularly for 
 the preachers. Bless the Lord for the degree of con- 
 formity I feel to the Lord's will. O give me universal 
 conformity and perfect resignation ! In the evening 
 walked to a distant grove and prostrated myself at the 
 feet of the awful Jehovah. Met my brethren in cove- 
 nant prayer; my soul all on fire." 
 4
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit, with an 
 
 Episode. 
 
 All the Conferences which up to this time McKen- 
 dree had attended (four in number) met at Peters- 
 burg in the spring or early summer. But the fifth one, 
 of which we are now to speak, convened at Lane's 
 Chapel, in Southampton County, December 21, 1791. 
 Bishop Asbury says : "This Conference began and 
 ended in peace." The two Conferences immediately 
 preceding it had been anything but peaceable. It is 
 likely that, as a General Conference was now promised 
 for the next year, everybody felt disposed to let con- 
 troversy cease till that time. Not even O'Kellcy 
 showed any spirit of warfare. Having traveled four 
 full years, McKendree was duly elected by the Con- 
 ference to elder's orders ; and on Sunday, December 
 25, was ordained to that office by Bishop Asbury, who 
 had before ordained him deacon, and afterwards or- 
 dained him bishop. 
 
 At the close of the Conference he was sent as 
 preacher in charge to Greenville Circuit, with Joel 
 Thacker as his assistant. He did not want to go. 
 Quite possibly he expressed his opposition to doing so. 
 But all the same he went. Let us hear his explanation : 
 "This was the first station that I felt my will opposed 
 to. It fixed me in the midst of my old acquaintances, 
 many of whom were in our societies before me and 
 considered themselves as my superiors. It was a 
 
 (48)
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 49 
 
 sifting time in those parts, and I expected that some 
 of them would have to be excluded. This I feared 
 they would not bear from me, which was the cause of 
 my unwillingness to go to the circuit. But in this I 
 was disappointed. I believe I never went through 
 the business of a circuit with more ease. Although 
 many were turned out, there were no fixed prejudices 
 in consequence of the administration as far as I know. 
 True, we had but few additions to the Church ; yet 
 we had many sweet and precious meetings." Mc- 
 Kendree was not the first itinerant minister who found 
 out that an appointment might be better than it looked, 
 and neither was he the last one. 
 
 This brings us to another critical point in McKen- 
 dree's career. I have alluded above to James O'Kelley. 
 Being such a man as he was, and occupying such a 
 position in the Church as he did, he naturally acquired 
 a great influence over McKendree's mind, and came 
 near to turning him quite aside from the path of use- 
 fulness and honor on which he had entered. As an 
 Irishman, O'Kelley had a natural distrust of govern- 
 ment, and for some reason or other he had come to 
 cherish a persistent dislike for Bishop Asbury. The 
 majority of Methodist historians do not hesitate to 
 charge that he was controlled by envy and jealousy. 
 I shall not indulge in so extreme a judgment, for it is 
 well to be charitable even toward a man who has been 
 nearly ninety years in his grave. But I will say that on 
 the supposition of his having been a simple-minded 
 and straightforward man it is difficult to understand 
 the course which he now took. Waiving all other con- 
 siderations, he and Asbury were so differently consti-
 
 50 Life of IVilliam McKendrce, 
 
 tuted that it would have been difficult for them in any 
 complicated situation to see eye to eye or to act in 
 harmony. 
 
 The organizing General Conference of 1784 had made 
 no provision for the subsequent meeting of General 
 Conferences, and does not even seem to have thought 
 of taking such a step. As practical men they had met 
 the emergency with which they were then confronted 
 and did not undertake to forecast the difficulties that 
 might arise in the future, nor to make provision against 
 them. The Discipline of the Church they had drawn 
 out in definite form, and left it with no suggestion as 
 to how it might later be altered, amended, or improved. 
 As a matter of course, however, it was still within the 
 power of the whole body of ministers to change it at 
 their will. What they had made they could unmake. 
 If they had once got together, a mere majority vote 
 would have been sufficient to effect this end. 
 
 But there was the rub. Getting them together 
 was not an easy thing. True, they met annually 
 in different groups, in different parts of the coun- 
 try. These groups were not yet Annual Confer- 
 ences in our present sense of the term. They were 
 without fixed geographical boundaries or definite 
 membership. It was not till 1796 that such limita- 
 tions were attached. Up to that time the number 
 of them and their times and places of meeting were 
 determined from year to year so as to best meet 
 the convenience of the bishops and the preachers. 
 To get any legislative measure through them all — 
 and it had to go through them all before it could be 
 effective — meant, therefore, an almost endless series
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 51 
 
 of debates. The inevitable effect was divisive. Men 
 in different parts of the country could not look one 
 another in the face, nor be sure that they really under- 
 stood one another's minds. Nor was it at all likely 
 that when the debates had been ended and the votes 
 taken and declared there would be general acquiescence 
 in the result. 
 
 But it was as sure as anything could be that legisla- 
 tion would become a necessity, and that new measures 
 would be required to meet new conditions. That the 
 Discipline of 1784 should come to be accepted as final 
 and unalterable was not possible. No Protestant 
 Church will ever agree that any set of ecclesiastical 
 statutes is unchangeable. While Church polities should 
 not be altered in mere wantonness, they must be held 
 open to such improvements as the enlarging experi- 
 ences of godly men may deem best. The worst enemy 
 to a true conservatism is the temper that doggedly re- 
 sists all innovations, for it is certain to breed radicalism 
 by reaction. 
 
 Within a few years Asbury and the other leaders 
 began to see that they must devise some workable 
 scheme by which the Connection could express its mind 
 and judgment on living issues in such a way as to avoid 
 the awkward and cumbersome method of voting 
 through the yearly Conferences. It seems strange to 
 us that they did not at once convene another General 
 Conference. The objection offered to it was that it 
 would cost a great deal of time and money. But this 
 objection was no more potent than it would have been 
 in 1784, save that now there were many more preach- 
 ers to come together, and the question of entertaining 
 
 1). Qt (LiL Lid.
 
 ^2 Life of IVilliam McKeudree. 
 
 them fn one place would have presented some substan- 
 tial difficulties. Back of the economical argument 
 there was probably the lingering fear that if all the 
 preachers should meet in one body they might do 
 violence to the existing order. Asbury never quite got 
 over his early training, nor ceased to be somewhat 
 doubtful about trusting mere majorities. 
 
 As an expediency, then, it was determined to create 
 a Representative Council. In 1789 this plan was laid 
 before the yearly Conferences by Bishop Asbury, and 
 met with their almost unanimous approval. Later in 
 the year — that is to say, on December i — the first ses- 
 sion of the Council was convened at Cokesbury Col- 
 lege, Abingdon, Md. As above indicated, it was in 
 some sense a delegated body, being composed of the 
 bishops and the presiding elders. If any one of the 
 presiding elders should find it impossible to attend in 
 person, he was requested to send some other elder from 
 his district as a substitute. It was stipulated that at 
 least nine elders must be present for valid legislation. 
 If for any reason the number should fall short of this 
 stipulation, the bishops were instructed to fill the 
 vacancies by choosing elders from any quarter. 
 
 The powers of this Council, though apparently great, 
 were really very small ; for it could not perfect legisla- 
 tion, but only mature and frame suggestions which, be- 
 fore becoming laws, must be passed upon by the 
 preachers in the yearly Conferences. Even this it could 
 not do without a unanimous vote. That was simply 
 going round a circle, therefore, and coming back to the 
 same point. The only advantage gained was the pos- 
 sibility — a mere possibility at best — that tlie sugges-
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 53 
 
 tions of the Council would carry so much weight as to 
 be sure of a kindly reception and ratification at the 
 hands of the preachers in the Conferences. The re- 
 sult did not justify even this expectation, but became 
 a fresh source of wrangling and disputation. 
 
 The men of the first Council were men of light and 
 leading. If the Church had been searched throughout, 
 their superiors could not have been found. They were : 
 Richard Ivey, from Georgia ; Reuben Ellis, South 
 Carolina ; Philip Bruce, Northern District of Virginia ; 
 James O'Kelley, Southern District of Virginia ; Nel- 
 son Reed, Western Shore of Maryland; J. Everett, 
 Eastern Shore; John Dickens, Pennsylvania; J. O. 
 Cromwell, New Jersey; Freeborn Garrettson, New 
 York. But not one of them was chosen by the Confer- 
 ences. They were members of the Council by virtue of 
 their office. Bishop Asbury gives a very brief account 
 of the proceedings. "All our business," he says, "was 
 done in harmony and love." This business seems to 
 have related chiefly to the wants of Cokesbury College, 
 the printing of books and tracts, and the securing of 
 funds for the sufifering preachers on the Western fron- 
 tier. That was not a very formidable program, to be 
 sure. What there was in it to frighten anybody, it is 
 very difficult to see. Meager as it was also, it was of 
 no effect whatever until it should first be carried round 
 by Bishop Asbury for the approval of the brethren. 
 
 O'Kelley, it will be noticed, was a member of the 
 Council. He had offered no objection to the project 
 in the first place, nor any to the specific measures which 
 it had proposed for acceptance or rejection. If he had 
 been minded to object, his one vote could have stopped
 
 54 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 everything. But he soon afterwards got it into his 
 head that mischief was brewing. It is possible that on 
 full reflection he saw or imagined that the innocent- 
 looking Council might develop into an instrument in 
 the hands of an oligarchy for the oppression of the 
 Church. So he determined to take up an antagonistic 
 attitude, and he did it at once. Traveling fast, he 
 reached Virginia in advance of Asbury, and opened 
 a crusade of systematic opposition. McKendree fell 
 under his spell. Within a few months the two 
 traveled together to the Conference, June 14-20, 
 1790, and O'Kelley used all his power to poison the 
 mind of the young man, not only against the proceed- 
 ings of the Council, but also against Asbury himself. 
 From any point of view, it is a pitiful story. When the 
 Conference met, everything w^ent well until Asbury, 
 as in duty bound, brought out the budget from the 
 Council. It had been agreed in advance by O'Kelley 
 and his followers to treat it with scant courtesy. They 
 not only repudiated it, root and branch, but "refused 
 to adopt any accommodating plan." Asbury, w-ho 
 was too wise to fight against such odds, behaved very 
 graciously and went right forward with the customary 
 business. IMcKendree had evidently looked for some 
 tyrannical outbreak from the chair, and was not a lit- 
 tle surprised at the mildness of the Bishop. 
 
 A taste of success whetted O'Kelley's appetite for 
 controversy. He put in the larger part of the next 
 year keeping up an acrimonious agitation. Wherever 
 he went the burden of his conversation w-as that the 
 Church was in danger of destruction ; that Asburv and 
 the leaders who sided with him — he called them a
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 55 
 
 "party" — were filled with a lust for money and power ; 
 and that it was imperative upon those who truly loved 
 God to take steps for staying the plague. After some 
 delay, he accordingly called the preachers of his dis- 
 trict together at Mecklenburg to consider the whole 
 situation — a sort of Council of his own. The most of 
 them agreed with him, but some dissented. All were 
 ready to demand the calling of a General Conference 
 as the only satisfactory remedy. The demand itself 
 was right and wise, but the spirit which lay behind it 
 was bitter and destructive. 
 
 A second session of the Council met in Baltimore 
 December i, 1790. In view of the ill success that had 
 attended the efforts of the year before, and of the deep 
 feeling that was generally prevalent in the Church, it 
 adjourned without making any recommendations. No 
 other session was ever convened, and thus ended this 
 well-meant but impotent attempt to deal with the dif- 
 ficulties that grew out of the very successes that the 
 Church had achieved. In the meantime Bishop Coke 
 had thrown his influence in favor of a General Confer- 
 ence, one of the wise things he did among many un- 
 wise ones. The Church at large proved to be of the 
 same mind; and in November, 1792, the General Con- 
 ference met in the city of Baltimore. 
 
 McKendree was present, having gone up from 
 Greenville Circuit in company with O'Kelley, whose 
 wrath against Asbury was nowise placated, though he 
 had secured the object which was supposed to be the 
 end of his desires. By this time McKendree was 
 pretty thoroughly saturated with the views of his 
 elder and ready to follow him in most measures.
 
 56 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 Though he was now in the fifth year of his ministry, he 
 does not seem up to that time to have pondered with 
 special seriousness the problems of Church go\'ern- 
 ment, nor to have taken an accurate measurement of 
 the men with whom he had been intimately associated. 
 
 Strangely enough, there is no official record of this 
 General Conference of 1792, though its importance was 
 great enough to have justified the most careful preser- 
 vation of its proceedings. Jesse Lee, who was pres- 
 ent, states that it was a large body composed of men 
 from all those parts of the country to which Metli- 
 odism had spread. There was a feeling in the air that 
 something unusual was about to take place, and some- 
 thing did. After one day in framing rules of order, 
 the Conference went regularly over the whole Dis- 
 cipline with a view to such changes as might be needed. 
 
 O'Kelley was loaded for Asbury. He had come up 
 for the express purpose of putting a curb on the epis- 
 copacy, and evidently expected to succeed in his ven- 
 ture. The Conference of 1784 had left the appoint- 
 ment of the preachers in the hands of the bishops, as 
 it had before been in the hands of Wesley and his chief 
 American assistants. That was the original Methodist 
 plan. It had worked well. O'Kelley had no personal 
 ground of complaint; for ever since his ordination, 
 eight years before, he had served continuously on one 
 district. But the mere sight of power in the hands of 
 other men seemed to madden him. He would have 
 none of it. So he took an early start, and on the second 
 day proposed the following amendment to the Dis- 
 cipline: "After the bishop appoints the preachers at 
 Conference to their several circuits, if anv one think
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 57 
 
 himself injured by his appointment, he shall have 
 liberty to appeal to the Conference and state his objec- 
 tions; and if the Conference approve his objections, 
 the bishop shall then appoint him to another circuit." 
 
 On the face of it, nothing could be fairer. It is no 
 wonder that at first a majority seemed to approve it. 
 But a long debate followed, and there is nothing that 
 is more illuminating than an honest debate. The state- 
 ment is made by contemporary authority that no sub- 
 ject had ever before so fully called forth all the strength 
 of the preachers. As the Issues involved touched 
 chiefly the administration of Bishop Asbury, Bishop 
 Coke, who was present on one of his flying journeys, 
 presided, and expressed his fair surprise at the vigor 
 and ability of the disputants. Dr. Stevens says : "The 
 discussion lasted nearly a week (to be exact, three 
 days). It was the first of those great parliamentary 
 debates which have given preeminence to the delibera- 
 tive talent of the body. It was led chiefly by O'Kelley, 
 Ivey, Hull, Garretson, and Swift for the affirmative ; 
 and by Willis, Lee, Morell, Everett, and Reed for the 
 negative — all chieftains of the itinerancy and eloquent 
 speakers." 
 
 After much discussion, on motion of John Dickens, 
 the subject was divided thus: i. "Shall the bishops 
 appoint the preachers to the circuits? 2. Shall a 
 preacher be allowed an appeal?" The first question 
 was carried affirmatively without opposition. But the 
 crux still remained. The negative argument which 
 seemed to have most weight was that an appeal from 
 the Bishop to the Conference would be Imprac- 
 ticable. Tlioinas Ware summarizes It as follows :
 
 58 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 "Should one preacher appeal, and the Conference say 
 that his appointment should be altered, the bishop must 
 remove some other one to make room for him, in which 
 case the other might complain and appeal in turn." 
 Ware adds that, nevertheless, he believes O'Kelley 
 might have carried his point if he had shown a better 
 spirit. Some of his followers were very violent and 
 said: "It is a shame for a man to accept such lordship 
 as the bishops exercise, much more to claim it, and 
 that they who would submit to this absolute dominion 
 must forfeit all claims to freedom and ought to have 
 their ears bored through with an awl and be fastened 
 to their master's door and become slaves for life." 
 Those old-time brethren were not always mild of 
 speech. 
 
 The outcome of it all was that the motion to give 
 the right of appeal was lost by a large majority. As- 
 bury was not elated by the result. He knew, it is true, 
 that a bishop without authority to fix the appointments 
 would become a mere moderator, and that the itiner- 
 ancy would soon break down under such an arrange- 
 ment. But he did not covet the heavy responsibilities 
 that the law imposed upon him. ''I have been much 
 grieved for others and distressed with the burden I 
 bear and must hereafter bear." Nor, I feel sure, has 
 he ever had a successor in ofiice that would not have 
 been glad to be exempt from so heart-crushing a duty 
 as that of stationing the preachers. 
 
 O'Kelley, who was terribly disappointed when his 
 seeming victory was turned into defeat, did not hesi- 
 tate for a day as to what course he should pursue. The 
 next morning he and a few of his adherents addressed
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 59 
 
 a letter to the Conference, stating that they could no 
 longer retain their seats in that body. All possible 
 efforts were made to conciliate them. A committee of 
 three, including Freeborn Garrettson, who had sided 
 with them in the debate, was designated to visit him 
 and urge him to reconsider his determination; but all 
 to no purpose. Not even an interview with Bishop 
 Coke, who shared many of his views, proved of any 
 avail. He and his partisans — those, that is, who were 
 beyond compromise — left the city before the Confer- 
 ence adjourned. Carrying their saddlebags, great- 
 coats, and other bundles, they walked to a place twelve 
 miles distant in the country, where they had left their 
 horses, and rode off home in high dudgeon. William 
 McKendree was one of the company. He had become 
 convinced that O'Kelley's position w^as correct and fol- 
 lowed his convictions honestly, though no doubt with 
 a sad heart. Jesse Lee, who knew O'Kelley well, ex- 
 pressed deep regret at seeing him go off in such a 
 humor, because he was sure that ''the old man" meant 
 mischief. 
 
 On the way to Virginia O'Kelley fully uncovered his 
 plans to his companions. He had burned the bridges 
 behind him and would take no backward steps. He 
 meant to organize an entirely new Church. It should 
 be a glorious Church in every particular — without 
 bishops, without slavery, without concentration of au- 
 thority anywhere. The program was attractive to 
 many minds, and seemed for a time to have in it the 
 elements of success. But in the long run it came to 
 naught. For many years it created great disturbances 
 in Virginia and North Carolina. The echoes of it
 
 6o Life of William McKendrcc. 
 
 were heard in the forests of Kentucky and Tennessee, 
 where James Haw, one of the most effective pioneer 
 preachers, was drawn off by it. It arrested, in fact, 
 for two full quadrenniums the growth of the whole 
 Church. But it yielded no valuable and permanent re- 
 sults. The organization which was effected at Mana- 
 kintown, Va., in 1793, with O'Kelley taking the lead in 
 everything, had the seeds of schism in itself and soon 
 split up into several minor bodies. 
 
 Jesse Lee, writing in 1809, says : "They have been 
 divided and subdivided till at present it is hard to find 
 two of them that are of one opinion." O'Kelley issued 
 pamphlet after pamphlet assailing Asbury and the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. Nicholas Snethen and 
 others made vigorous replies. Asbury concluded to 
 take no hand in the war of words, though he had gath- 
 ered many documents for his defense. His attitude 
 was patient and noble. Referring to his accusers, he 
 said : 'T bid such adieu and appeal to the bar of God. 
 I have no time to contend, having better work to do. 
 If we have lost some children, God will give us more. 
 Ah ! this is the mercy, the justice of some who under 
 God owe their all to me and my tyrants, so called. 
 The Lord judge between them and me." A few con- 
 gregations yet remain that had their origin in this 
 disastrous schism ; but they have always been a mere 
 backwater in the Methodist movement, without out- 
 look or influence upon the world, and to-day they are 
 a negligible quantity even in the communities in which 
 they at first had their greatest show of strength. 
 
 Ten years after the revolt Asbury and O'Kelley met 
 at Winchester, Va., talked of things indifferently, but
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 6l 
 
 said nothing of their personal antagonisms, prayed, 
 and parted in peace. O'Kelley survived till October 
 1 6, 1826, and died in his ninety-second year. Dr. 
 Leroy M. Lee says : "He retained to the latest period 
 of his life unabated confidence in the purity and power 
 of his system. In age and feebleness his hope in the 
 work of his hands did not desert him. He went down 
 to the grave, according to one of his followers, satisfied 
 with the past and peaceful and hopeful with respect to 
 the future." 
 
 But to get back to McKendree. He was not quite 
 ready, even after he left the General Conference, to 
 abandon the ship. He still cherished a lingering hope 
 for some sort of adjustment, though he could not see 
 how it was to be brought about. A few weeks later — 
 that is, November 26 — the Virginia Conference met at 
 Manchester, opposite Richmond. iMcKendree was not 
 present. Bishop Paine says : "The interval between the 
 General and Annual Conferences was too short to af- 
 ford time for the removal of the feeling excited at the 
 former. Sympathizing deeply with his old and ap- 
 parently his best friend, imperfectly acquainted with 
 the subject of Church government, and with the do- 
 cility almost of a child confiding in the representation 
 of Mr. Asbury's character and of the consequences 
 likely to result to the Church from the action of the 
 General Conference as instilled into his mind by Mr. 
 O'Kelley, McKendree respectfully wrote to the Con- 
 ference, declining to take an appointment for the en- 
 suing year." 
 
 When the Conference was ended, Bishop Asbury, 
 who was sleeplessly vigilant for the welfare of the
 
 62 Life of William McKcndrce. 
 
 Church, set out on a tour of visitation through the 
 disaffected region of the State, including especially 
 what had long been O'Kelley's district. That was a 
 wise piece of strateg}% well conceived and well exe- 
 cuted. It brought him soon into the neighborhood of 
 McKendree's home. The two met in a friendly and 
 pleasant spirit, with the result that when the Bishop 
 passed on McKendree went with him, by special re- 
 quest, as his traveling companion for a few weeks. 
 The outcome of this jaunt might have been easily 
 foreseen. McKendree gained an entirely new point 
 of view. He came to see that Asbury, instead of 
 being an ambitious tyrant, full of plans for his OAvn 
 aggrandizement, was really a modest and gentle Chris- 
 tian man, bent solely on the welfare of the Church 
 and the glory of God. "It gradually dawned on 
 him, too, that the adoption of O'Kelley's late favorite 
 measure meant the ruin of the general superintendency 
 and of the whole itinerant system. The spell of the 
 enchantress was broken. Humbled and mortified at 
 his own weakness, with characteristic candor he con- 
 fessed his error, was received again into the confidence 
 of the warm-hearted old Bishop, and was at once sent 
 to the city of Norfolk. This was the amount of Mc- 
 Kendree's defection. His itinerancy was temporarily 
 suspended at his own request ; but after about a month 
 he resumed his position and his work in the ranks with 
 his late associates, having become a wiser man." 
 
 The work at Norfolk proved to be pleasant enough, 
 except that there was a good deal of agitation created 
 by the withdrawal of O'Kelley's partisans from the 
 Church. McKendree bears testimonv to the fact that
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 63 
 
 the grace of God was sufficient for him in the midst of 
 his perplexities : "On this critical station the Lord was 
 singularly good to me. In the midst of my confusion 
 I had access to the throne of grace and was enabled 
 to preach. Mercy and power attended the word, and 
 the people were blessed, so that I had refreshing cor- 
 dials in the midst of many bitter draughts." Ira Ellis 
 was his presiding elder and helped him mightily in 
 every way. To use McKendree's own words : "He was 
 a comfort to me. From him I obtained information 
 and counsel which were of inestimable value to me in 
 my dilemma." This Ira Ellis was a Virginian. He 
 entered the itinerancy in 1781 and continued in it for 
 thirteen years, locating in 1795 on account of domestic 
 necessities. His ministry reached all the way from 
 Pennsylvania to South Carolina and everywhere com- 
 manded great respect. Asbury, who was not effusive 
 in praise, pays him this high tribute: "He was a man 
 of quick and solid parts. I have thought, had fortune 
 given him the same advantages of education, he would 
 have displayed abilities not inferior to Jefferson or 
 Madison. But he had what is better than learning: 
 he had undissembled sincerity, great modesty, deep 
 fidelity, great ingenuity, and uncommon power of 
 reasoning. He was a good man, of even temper." 
 Nothing could have been more fortunate for McKen- 
 dree than to be thrown into close association with such 
 a man. 
 
 The Conference met at Petersburg November 25, 
 
 1793, with fifty-five preachers present, Bishop Asbury 
 
 again presiding. For some reason or other, which, 
 
 of course, is not disclosed in the minutes, McKendree 
 
 5
 
 64 Life of IVilliain McKcndrce. 
 
 was moved to Union Circuit, in South Carolina. Ke 
 had never before labored outside of his native State 
 nor traveled beyond its bounds, except occasionally into 
 Maryland. If he lost the blessing of close companion- 
 ship with Ira Ellis by this change, he fell into the 
 equally good hands of Philip Bruce, who was presiding 
 elder on the new district. Bruce was a North Carolin- 
 ian. His name looks and sounds Scotch, but it was orig- 
 inally De Bruise. He was of Huguenot ancestry. He 
 had been a soldier of the Revolution. Joining the Vir- 
 ginia Conference on probation in 1781, he remained 
 thirty-six years in the itinerancy. In 1817 he took a 
 superannuate relation and removed to Tennessee to 
 spend his closing days with his kindred, who had pre- 
 ceded him thither. In every station that he occupied 
 he showed great ability and great consecration. But 
 for his advanced age. he would probably have been 
 elected to the episcopacy in 1816. After the lapse of a 
 centur}- the memory of his name is still a pleasant odor 
 in all the fields in which he labored. For one quarter 
 of this year McKendrce was the traveling companion 
 of Bishop Asbury, his place on the circuit being sup- 
 plied by Tobias Gibson, the same who afterwards be- 
 came the founder of Methodism in ^lississippi. 
 
 For several years now there had been separate Con- 
 ferences in \'irginia, North Carolina, and South Caro- 
 lina ; but on December 25, 1794, all the itinerants in 
 these three States, about eighty in number, met at Mrs. 
 Mabry's, in Greenville County, \'a. It was perhaps 
 the largest Annual Conference that had ever met in 
 America, and it embraced a good deal of ability and 
 weight. McKendree got still another long move, this
 
 Four Years More on the Circuit. 65 
 
 time to Botetourt, in Southwest Virginia, with John 
 Kobler as his presiding elder. The two were to be 
 true yokefellows again, after the lapse of some years, 
 in the far West. Dr. Stevens states that this year he 
 really had four circuits under his care, traveling each 
 of them for one quarter ; but I can find no confirmation 
 of the statement elsewhere. On this and on the pre- 
 ceding circuit McKendree's diary fails us, much to our 
 regret. But we know that here, as elsewhere, he meas- 
 ured up to all his responsibilities. After this he was 
 to travel circuits no more, but was to be set in a larger 
 sphere and to be charged with weightier obligations, 
 which could not have been the case if there had been 
 any weakening of his intellectual or spiritual qualities 
 or any diminution in the volume and excellency of 
 his activities. As a circuit pastor he had "purchased 
 to himself a good degree and great boldness in the 
 faith." It was full time for him to move up. 'Thou 
 hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee 
 ruler over many things."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 First Five Years in the Presiding Eldership. 
 
 As intimated in the close of the last chapter, Mc- 
 Kendree was now about to enter upon a wider field of 
 bbor than any he had hitherto occupied. Having been 
 fully tested in many places as a circuit preacher, and 
 having been found competent and faithful on all the 
 ground, he was deemed worthy to be invested with the 
 duties and responsibilities of the presiding eldership. 
 This office, which has become one of the badges of 
 Episcopal Methodism, had grown up in a natural and 
 orderly way. Nobody designed it in advance. It was 
 not a piece of a preconceived ecclesiastical machinery. 
 It came providentially, and because it filled a felt 
 want it remained and abides to this day. At the 
 Christmas Conference of 1784 only a few of the 
 preachers were elected and ordained elders. There 
 was not the slightest disposition to lay hands suddenly 
 and indiscriminately on just anybody that might desire 
 it. Those who were supposed to be the most compe- 
 tent were picked out for this distinction. On the whole, 
 the results justified the choice that was made. The 
 names of John Tunnell, William Gill, Leroy Cole, Nel- 
 son Reed, John Haggerty, Reuben Ellis, Richard Ivey, 
 Henry Willis, James O'Kelley, and Beverly Allen be- 
 came known throughout the entire Church, though the 
 last two failed to fulfill the expectations that were en- 
 tertained conceming them. 
 
 These picked men were judiciously distributed in 
 (66)
 
 First Five Years in the Presiding Eldership. 67 
 
 every part of the country to which Methodism had 
 spread, that they might be able to administer the sacra- 
 ments with reasonable regularity in all the circuits. 
 By successive steps their work was enlarged until it 
 became one of general oversight, and after 1792 they 
 were formally designated as presiding elders. The 
 title, indeed, had been occasionally used prior to that 
 time, but not regularly. Thenceforward it had an ac- 
 credited standing in Methodist terminology. Our 
 brethren beyond the Ohio have swapped it off In re- 
 cent years for district superintendent. If they are 
 pleased with the change, nobody else has a right to 
 object; but I sincerely hope that my ow^n Church will 
 not follow the example. Presiding elder is Biblical, 
 ecclesiastical, historical. It has a fixed and definite 
 meaning, whereas the five-syllabled "superintendent" 
 is not only awkward on the lips, but may have any 
 one of several distinct significations. The Wesleyans 
 shorten their superintendents to supers. If that ab- 
 breviation should become common In America, it will 
 be an additional reason for adhering to the old name. 
 
 The office Itself has been one of much consequence. 
 In every generation It has been held by many men of 
 might. Merely to call the roll of really great presiding 
 elders would take much more space than I can spare. 
 It must be admitted that the critics of the office have 
 not been few nor gentle. First and last, they have 
 stirred up a good deal of opposition, and they are still 
 at work. The most of them are men who have not 
 themselves been called to preside. They tell us that, 
 whatever may have been the case In the past, there can 
 certainly be no reason nowadays for burdening the
 
 68 Life of JVilliam McKendree, 
 
 Church with the expense of a needless supervision; 
 and they do say now and then that the office has be- 
 come a sort of city of refuge for broken-down or in- 
 capable pastors. There may be some truth in these 
 allegations, but not enough to give them great weight. 
 Anyhow, if there is nothing the matter with the pre- 
 siding eldership except the presiding elders, that is a 
 condition that can be remedied by wiser appointments. 
 My own opinion is that, in spite of changed conditions, 
 the presiding eldership never before had in it such 
 potencies for good as it has at the present time. Only 
 fill it with the right sort of men, and it will continue 
 to be one of the most important pieces of our polity. 
 Laying all other considerations aside, it is a necessary 
 adjunct of the episcopacy. The two are boimd to 
 stand or fall together. If one goes, the other will not 
 be far behind it. Whether the episcopacy is worth 
 keeping is a question that may itself raise much debate. 
 But in case we desire to retain It, we must hold fast to 
 the presiding eldership also. Bishop McTyeIre says 
 weightily : 'Tt was a great step forward in the efficient 
 and thorough organization of iNIethodism as an Episco- 
 pal Oiurch when this office, with its place and powers, 
 was defined. . . . The presiding elders are the sup- 
 plement of the itinerant general superintendency ; 
 without them It would be Impracticable on a continental 
 scale. They complete the local supervision and make 
 the general one possible." 
 
 At the session of the Virginia Conference which met 
 at Salem Chapel, Mecklenburg County, November 24, 
 1795, Bishop Asbury, who had, as he often showed, 
 a keen sense for picking men with a capacity for
 
 First Five Years in the Presiding Eldership. 69 
 
 leadership, appointed McKendree to a district which 
 stretched from the Chesapeake Bay northward and 
 westward over the Bhie Ridge and the Alleghany 
 Mountains, and included a large stretch of country on 
 the Western waters. Fifty of the North African 
 bishoprics of Augustine's time might have been in- 
 cluded in it, All that part of it lying close to the bay 
 was in the oldest part of the State. But the most of 
 it back toward and beyond the mountains was new, 
 rough, and thinly inhabited, with such general condi- 
 tions of living as made it far from being an inviting 
 field to any except a truly heroic minister. To dwell 
 upon details is not necessary, but it may be well to 
 point out a few things. All traveling was by horse- 
 back. Roads and bridges were few and of inferior 
 character. Hotels were scarcely known. The private 
 houses, though usually open to strangers, were not tidy 
 nor comfortable. In the remotest mountain sections 
 they were often lacking in common decency. It was 
 no easy task that McKendree faced. But he was a 
 seasoned soldier, a true veteran; and neither toil nor 
 hardship nor peril could daunt him. On this post he 
 remained three full years. His nominal salary was 
 $64 per annum, but it never actually reached much 
 more than half that sum. His memorandum book 
 shows his receipts with scrupulous carefulness. He 
 kept his accorunts as rigidly as if he had been handling 
 thousands. But nobody ever heard a cry of poverty 
 from his lips. His wants were simple. He did not de- 
 sire many things. What he could not pay for out of 
 his slender stipend he did without. If he had had a 
 wife and children, it would have been his duty to look
 
 70 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 after their comfort; but, as he was a bachelor, he had 
 the right to carry self-denial to the last limit. 
 
 In the meanwhile he was constantly gaining in 
 breadth and maturity of judgment, in power to deal 
 wisely and easily with men and things, and in the 
 depth and reach of his religious experience. Bishop 
 Soule, who never spoke without duly measuring his 
 words, says in the discourse which he delivered on the 
 occasion of McKendree's death : "The oversight of the 
 district in the administration of the Discipline was 
 conducted with great wisdom and prudence and to the 
 satisfaction of the preachers and members. The 
 spirit of schism which had previously prevailed in 
 some parts of the district greatly subsided, and the 
 love of union, peace, and order was revived.'* That 
 was just what we should naturally have expected when 
 McKendree was in charge. He was himself the in- 
 carnation of system and order, and he carried with 
 him wherever he went the spirit and disposition of the 
 peacemaker. His own record, while very modest, is a 
 little more ample. He says : "I was blessed with many 
 friends, abundant in kindness, and some of them able 
 counselors. We were blessed with a revival of re- 
 ligion. Alany professed to obtain regenerating grace 
 and joined the Church. The members provoked one 
 another to love and to good works, and their advance- 
 ment in the divine life was evident. The abundant 
 labors and cares which the charge imposed were too 
 great for my strength. My studies were, therefore, 
 partially prevented by attention to other branches of 
 duty, and my nervous system was otherwise impaired. 
 But I was abundantly compensated by having intimate
 
 First Five Years in the Presiding Eldership. 71 
 
 union and communion with my adorable Saviour, and 
 the increasing prosperity of the Church at once in- 
 vigorated my zeal and increased my joy." 
 
 In 1799, for some reason that is nowhere stated, Mc- 
 Kendree was removed from his district in the Virginia 
 Conference to a contiguous one in the Baltimore Con- 
 ference. His new field was not quite so large as the 
 old one, though it was large enough in all conscience. 
 It reached from the Chesapeake across the Blue Ridge, 
 but stopped at the western foothills of the Alleghanies. 
 As his health had not been robust, it may have been 
 the purpose of Bishop Asbury to lessen somewhat the 
 measure of his necessary activities. This is simply a 
 surmise and may have nothing in it. Even in his 
 narrower limits McKendree had no time for idleness 
 nor even for much rest. He tells us that the year was 
 "full of trials." There is no easy place for a con- 
 scientious minister of Christ's gospel. But McKendree 
 found grace and strength according to his day and 
 need. Speaking of the difficulties that compassed him 
 about, he declares : *'They were forgotten in over- 
 whelming communion with God and reviving inter- 
 views with my followers. Here I found fathers and 
 mothers in Israel by whose example I was edified and 
 comforted." In the spring of 1800 he was retrans- 
 ferred to the same district in the Virginia Conference 
 from which he had been taken the year before. This, 
 of course, was not done without reason ; but as the 
 nature of the reason is nowhere set down, it is useless 
 to look for it. The Methodist chronicles of those days 
 are, as a usual thing, extremely concise and often leave
 
 '^z Life of William McKendree. 
 
 us guessing about things in regard to which we should 
 be glad to have exact knowledge. 
 
 That iMcKendree attended the General Conference 
 which met in May, 1800, in the city of Baltimore, is 
 certain. Henry Boehm mentions in his journal the 
 fact that he saw him there. The Journal of the Confer- 
 ence also reveals his presence, but it does not show 
 that he was very active in the proceedings. Dr. 
 Stevens calls attention to only one matter in regard to 
 which he participated. As usual in IMethodist assem- 
 blies of those days, there was a good deal of feeling on 
 the subject of slavery. Nicholas Snethen, a great man, 
 but always a radical, moved : "That this General Con- 
 ference do resolve that from this time forth no slave- 
 holders shall be admitted into the ^lethodist Episcopal 
 Church." William Ormond, of North Carolina, was 
 of much the same mind. Ezekiel Cooper suggested a 
 more conservative course: "That a committee be ap- 
 pointed to prepare an affectionate address to the Meth- 
 odist societies of the United States, stating the evils of 
 the spirit and practice of slavery and the nccessit}' of 
 doing away with the evil as far as the laws of the 
 respective States will allow," etc. William McKendree, 
 practicable and sensible as always, moved : "That this 
 General Conference direct the yearly Conferences to 
 appoint a committee to draw up proper addresses to the 
 State legislatures from year to year for the gradual 
 abolition of slavery." Instead of mere generalizations 
 concerning the evils of the institution, he proposed a 
 feasible plan for mitigating them. That was like him.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Set over the Forces in the Great West. 
 
 When the General Conference of 1800 came to an 
 end, McKendree promptly returned to his district in 
 Virginia. But he was not to stay there very long. In 
 the early autumn of the same year Bishops Asbury and 
 Whatcoat paid him a visit in the Greenbrier country 
 on their way to what was then called the Great West. 
 Whatcoat had just been elected to the episcopacy and 
 was making his first round in company with his sen- 
 ior colleague. He was one of the two elders whom 
 Wesley ordained in England in 1784 and sent over to 
 America in company with Bishop Coke, Thomas Vasey 
 being the other. He was not a man of uncommon in- 
 tellect, nor had he rendered any signal service to the 
 Connection. Besides, he was now nearly sixty-five 
 years of age and by no means robust In health. That 
 he should have been chosen over the brilliant and quick- 
 witted Jesse Lee, who had served with distinction in 
 many fields and had especially led the way into New 
 England, is one of those events that defy full explana- 
 tion. Nevertheless, there are some considerations that 
 throw light upon it. The piety of Whatcoat was be- 
 yond doubt and was, indeed, of that higher quality that 
 Is fairly entitled to be called saintliness. Speaking of 
 his ordination, Henry Boehm says : "Never were holy 
 hands laid upon a holier head." At the time of his 
 death, six years later, Asbury declared : "A man so 
 
 (73)
 
 74 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 uniformly good I have not known in Europe or Ameri- 
 ca." Besides, he was a preacher of great power and 
 pathos. The fact that Wesley had suggested him for 
 the general super intendency as far back as 1792 had 
 no doubt something to do with his being chosen now. 
 It is also probable that Asbury desired him and let 
 fall some words to that effect. The report got out 
 that he had gone further and spoken disparagingly of 
 Lee, but he afterwards denied it in a letter. Further- 
 more, it appears likely that to some extent personal 
 jealousies entered into the election. Good men as they 
 were, the primitive Methodist preachers were still de- 
 cidedly human. The very qualities that made Lee so 
 popular with the people had the natural effect of arous- 
 ing the antipathies of some of his slow-going brethren. 
 Envy loves a shining mark. It took three ballots to 
 determine the result. On the second ballot there was 
 a tie vote, and on the third Whatcoat had a majority 
 of four. Bishop Coke, w'ho always turned up at the 
 General Conferences, preached the ordination sermon, 
 and both he and Asbury joined in the laying on of 
 hands. Whatcoat did not shine in his new position. 
 He lacked initiative. But he made a good assistant 
 bishop to Asbury, preached with great acceptability 
 wherever he went, led a beautiful and holy life, and 
 in 1806 came to a triumphant end at the home of his 
 long-time friend. Judge Bassett, in Delaware. 
 
 As above indicated, the two bishops now traveled 
 together, as they often did. It was not an accident 
 that brought them into McKendrec's territory. They 
 had important business with him. For nearly ten years 
 the work had been lagging in Kentucky and Tennessee,
 
 Set over the Forces in the Great West. 75 
 
 and a man was needed who could rally and organize 
 the forces for an aggressive campaign. That Mc- 
 Kendree was the very man for the place, the bishops 
 had no doubt. In the whole range of their acquaint- 
 ance they knew no other one so competent to succeed 
 poor Francis Poythress, over whose brilliant mind the 
 veil of insanity was already beginning to fall. Whether 
 the thought of changing fields had ever before entered 
 McKendree's mind, we are not informed. But it 
 did not take him long to reach a conclusion. He be- 
 came convinced that the call of the bishops was an in- 
 dication of Providence, and he accepted it without hesi- 
 tation. Bishop McTyeire says of him: "He was ac- 
 customed to keep house in his saddlebags. It was said 
 that he could pack more in them and in better order 
 than other men. He therefore went at three hours' 
 notice." Writing of the incident long afterwards, he 
 himself said : *T was without money, books, or clothes. 
 These were at a distance, and I had no time to go 
 after them ; but I was not in debt, therefore unem- 
 barrassed. Of money due me, I collected one hundred 
 dollars, bought cloth for a coat, carried it to Holston, 
 and left it with a tailor in the bounds of my new dis- 
 trict. The bishops continued their course. My busi- 
 ness was to look after them and wait on them, for they 
 were both infirm old men." Asbury was only fifty-five 
 and Whatcoat about sixty-five. The service which Mc- 
 Kendree rendered his elder brethren then and often 
 afterwards was nowise exacted, but was a free and glad 
 courtesy. No man ever had a juster estimate of the 
 value of gentlemanliness. Whenever opportunity of- 
 fered he displayed it to others, and he was always
 
 "jG Life of William McKcndrcc. 
 
 deeply touched when it was shown to him. Writing of 
 a kind family that had entertained him in his earlier 
 ministry, he says : *'I am more and more convinced that 
 good manners are an accomplishment next to grace." 
 And by good manners he meant the kind of conduct 
 that springs from a good and gentle heart. 
 
 ^IcKendree was not utterly unacquainted with the 
 border, but he had never lived in the interior of the 
 West. He w-as now about to pass, therefore, into a 
 new world and was to spend the greater part of his 
 remaining days beyond the mountains. He was forty- 
 three years old, in the very prime and glory of his 
 manhood, strong of body, alert of mind, and fully con- 
 secrated to the work of preaching the gospel. Without 
 reserve, he was ready to throw himself into the surging 
 life of that great empire that was growing up in the 
 Mississippi Valley. The man and the occasion were 
 surely met — a mighty man and a great occasion. More 
 than anybody could see at the time God was in it. 
 
 The three itinerants moved on through Southwest 
 Virginia and East Tennessee, following for at least 
 two hundred miles almost the present track of the Nor- 
 folk and Western and Southern Railways. At Liberty, 
 the county seat of Bedford County, which they reached 
 on September 14, they were met by a great and curious 
 throng; and Asbury, though far from well, preached 
 in the courthouse. Thanks to his Journal, it is possible 
 for us to follow them from that point. Their way took 
 them by Wythevillc, then a pleasant village of twenty 
 houses, Russell's old place near Seven Mile Ford, Ab- 
 ingdon (just beginning to show signs of growth), and 
 thence past what is now Bristol to Edward Cox's, on
 
 Set over the Forces in the Great West. yy 
 
 the Holston River and ten miles within the Tennessee 
 line. Asbury had been welcomed in the home of that 
 good Maryland Methodist when he first crossed the 
 mountains twelve years before from the Carolinas, and 
 he never afterwards missed a chance to enjoy its gen- 
 erous and refreshing entertainment. From Cox's, by 
 a rather circuitous route, he and his friends made 
 another stage of fifty-five or sixty miles to Van Pelt's, 
 on Lick Creek, in Greene County. Here was another 
 of his "homes." Van Pelt was a local preacher, an 
 early pioneer from New York into that community. 
 His hospitality knew no bounds, and he counted it one 
 of the honors of his life to entertain these distinguished 
 servants of the Lord. 
 
 Up to this point the bishops had ridden for the most 
 part in an old chaise, while McKendree kept to the 
 back of his horse. This chaise is elsewhere said to 
 have cost originally thirty dollars ; but it must have 
 been of stout workmanship to stand the roads over 
 which it was driven. Indeed, it did now and then 
 break down and had to be propped and buttressed with 
 strong saplings till it could be got to the next black- 
 smith shop. At Van Pelt's it was left behind, being 
 totally unfit for the rest of the road. An extra horse 
 was also borrowed of the kindly host; and after the 
 delay of a few days, the final stage of the journey was 
 begun. 
 
 Turning a little west of north, they rode first to 
 Stubblefield's, near the line between Grainger and 
 Hawkins Counties, where they attended a Quarterly 
 Conference and preached. This leads me to say that 
 they missed no opportunity to preach along their en-
 
 78 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 tire way. That was their main business, and they had a 
 perfect passion for it. About thirty-five or forty miles 
 farther on was Cumberland Gap, to which all roads 
 leading to the west converged. It is a natural depres- 
 sion in the mountains and was first discovered in 1748 
 by Dr. Thomas Walker and a company of Virginia ex- 
 plorers, w^ho promptly named it, as well as the moun- 
 tains themselves and the river beyond, after the Duke 
 of Cumberland, who had then recently put down the 
 Young Pretender at Culloden. From the Gap their way 
 led on through the "wilderness" proper, a rough and 
 lonely section, and the lovely blue-grass region, that 
 American Arcadia, to Bethel Academy, on the Ken- 
 tucky River, where the Conference was to meet. 
 
 The whole distance from Greenbrier to this point, 
 including the detours, w^as not much, if any, less than 
 four hundred and fifty miles and had consumed more 
 than three weeks. The most of it was not new to As- 
 bury. He had visited Kentucky at least thrice before, 
 beginning in 1790. At that time also Whatcoat was 
 his companion. They then reached the Gap by a direct 
 route from General Russell's, passing down almost the 
 whole length of Powell's Valley. The story of that 
 earlier journey reads like a romance touched with 
 tragedy. Eight armed men came across the moimtains 
 to meet them and escort them back. Eight others 
 joined the company on the return. Of these sixteen 
 men, thirteen carried guns and would have been able to 
 give a good account of themselves in a fight. At every 
 step they were in danger of assault from roving In- 
 dians. On the roadside they counted the graves of
 
 Set over the Forces in the Great West. 79 
 
 twenty-four persons lately massacred. It took seven or 
 eight days from the Gap to Lexington. 
 
 I have stood in the great Gap and have set my imagi- 
 nation to work to recall the pioneer days. Before my 
 eyes have passed as in a mighty procession the hun- 
 dreds of thousands of men, women, and children, de- 
 filing on foot or on horseback, or later still in covered 
 wagons, through the friendly opening in search of new 
 and better homes for themselves and their posterity, 
 with brave Daniel Boone marching erect and steady at 
 the head of the column; and I have been mightily 
 stirred as I thought upon the significance of this racial 
 movement. Once I was conversing about it with the 
 brilliant young scholar (not so young now), Professor 
 Turner, of the University of Wisconsin, W'hen he sud- 
 denly turned on me with a lighted face and said : *'I 
 shall never be satisfied till I can go to Abingdon, in 
 Virginia, and take the wilderness trace horseback to 
 Lexington, Ky." 
 
 The pioneer preachers who moved here and there 
 in the throng were animated by different motives from 
 those which controlled the majority. They were not 
 on the lookout for homes and lands. Their only de- 
 sire was to reach and save the perishing thousands of 
 their fellow creatures that were without other helpers 
 in the way of life. Surely no motive could have been 
 nobler. Little noticed as they were at the time, it is 
 easy for us to see now that they did more to lay the 
 broad bases of a Christian civilization in the struggling 
 and ill-organized frontier communities than any other 
 ag-ency w^hich was then at work. 
 
 As noticed above, ten years had elapsed since this 
 6
 
 8o Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 first visit of Asbury, and conditions were now in many 
 respects much changed for the better. The Indians 
 had been taught the folly of w arring upon the whites 
 and no longer lurked upon the trail. Here and there 
 even in the wilderness were rough human habitations. 
 Kentucky was never a Territory in the technical 
 American sense of the term, but in 1792 was carved 
 directly out of Virginia and admitted as a full-fledged 
 State into the Federal Union, with a population of y2)y~ 
 000, which by the end of the century was almost quad- 
 rupled. In the central parts of the State signs of a 
 settled life and even of coming wealth were distinctly 
 visible. Nevertheless, let no one think that Asbury, 
 Whatcoat, and McKendree had even now a smooth anrl 
 easy way before them. Few men in our softer times 
 could be found with courage to undertake their task. 
 They reached Bethel Academy, in the bend of the Ken- 
 tucky River, October 4, 1800. 
 
 As set out in previous chapters, Methodism was al- 
 ready established in Kentucky and Tennessee. Seven- 
 teen years before this time — that is, in 1783 — Francis 
 Clark, a local preacher from A'irginia, in company with 
 John Durham and other laymen, settled near Danville 
 and organized themselves into a class ; but no mention 
 is made of them in the General Minutes. In 1786 the 
 first two regular itinerants, James Haw and Benjamin 
 Ogden, appointed from the Conference which met that 
 year in Baltimore, appeared on the scene. They were 
 men of uncommon parts and for several years did yeo- 
 man service, laying broad and secure foundations for 
 their successors. There was no hardship that they did 
 not endure and no danger that they did not encounter.
 
 Set over the Forces in the Great West. 8i 
 
 In the face of the most tremendous difficulties they 
 showed a steady and persistent courage that reached 
 and passed the level of heroism. Threading the nar- 
 row paths between settlements, they preached in the 
 lonely cabins, in the rude blockhouses, and wherever 
 else an audience could be gathered. They wore the 
 coarsest clothes, ate the homeliest food, and slept either 
 in beds that were far from tidiness and comfort or 
 else under the open sky. 
 
 In the Conference itself, which met October 4-6, 
 1800, there was not much business ; but there was 
 worry enough on the outside over the affairs of Bethel 
 Academy, which had been projected ten years before, 
 but had never been a success, and had given Asbury 
 almost as much concern as Cokesbury College. Leav- 
 ing out the two bishops, only five preachers answered 
 to their names at roll call. It is fitting that they should 
 be mentioned here : William McKendree, William 
 Burke, John Sale, Hezekiah Harriman, and Ben- 
 jamin Lakin. Three others were readmitted: Lewis 
 Hunt, Thomas Allen, and Jeremiah Lawson. Two 
 were admitted on trial : William Marsh and Benjamin 
 Young. Fourteen local preachers and four traveling 
 preachers were ordained deacons. 
 
 The salaries of the preachers, which were only eighty 
 dollars a year, all showed deficits. The most of these 
 heroic men actually received less than fifty dollars each 
 for their services. Without having formally assumed 
 any vow of poverty, they were nearly as poor as the 
 original disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi or as the 
 Galilean fishermen who answered the call of the Lord. 
 There was nothing that they dreaded more than being
 
 82 Life of IVilUam McKendree. 
 
 suspected of mercenary motives. At all costs, they 
 were determined to keep themselves free from that 
 imputation. Their purpose was as noble as that of St. 
 Paul when he labored with his own hands rather than 
 be a burden to the Church ; but they made a great 
 blunder in failing to see that self-denial and self-sacri- 
 fice are virtues of which the ministry has no right to 
 possess a monopoly. That *'the laborer is worthy of 
 his hire," and that "they who preach the gospel should 
 live of the gospel," are facts which cannot be slurred 
 over without harm and damage to all concerned. At 
 this point in their early history the fathers of Ameri- 
 can Methodism ate sour grapes, and the children's 
 teeth have been set on edge ever since. To the present 
 day we are suffering from the noble but erroneous 
 views of those who went before us. 
 
 The whole field west of the Alleghany Mountains 
 was thrown by the bishops — really by Bishop Asbury, 
 who took the lead in everything — into one district, 
 and McKendree was set over it. It was as large as an 
 empire, and included the whole States of Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, and Ohio, with a large part of Virginia, 
 and missions soon to be established in Illinois, Mis- 
 sissippi and Missouri. The very magnitude of it was 
 an appeal to the imagination, especially as there was 
 now pouring into it a fresh and growing tide of im- 
 migrants from the older States. The district was di- 
 vided into nine circuits, and these were supplied by 
 fourteen men, the nine heretofore mentioned and 
 besides them Henry Smith, Thomas Wilkerson, John 
 Page, James Hunter, and John Watson. It was a small
 
 vS'^^ over the Forces in the Great West. 83 
 
 corps, but a disciplined one, and it had a leader who 
 was a host within himself. 
 
 During the greater part of the Conference Asbury 
 was both sick and dejected. The routine affairs he 
 kept in his hands, but left the most of the preaching 
 to Whatcoat and McKendree. Indeed, on Sunday 
 he did not venture out to the public services, being shut 
 up in his own room by the rain. A note from his Jour- 
 nal is significant. He says: "It was strongly insisted 
 upon by preachers and people that I should say some- 
 thing before I left Bethel. Able or unable, willing or 
 unwilling, accordingly on Tuesday, in the Academical 
 Hall, I gave a long and temperate talk upon Hebrews 
 X. 38, 39." Others might preach with more force, 
 but the people must hear the veteran, and even at the 
 risk of putting too heavy a burden upon him they 
 clamored to see him on the platform. I know what 
 he meant when he said that his talk was "long," but 
 am not quite certain what sense he attached to the 
 word "temperate." It is probable, however, that, to 
 use a phrase which I once heard from a colored 
 preacher, he "held himself in." 
 
 No sooner was the Conference over than the un- 
 wearied itinerants were again moving. They had little 
 time to lie by and rest. They were on the King's 
 business, and that, as always, required haste. Leaving 
 Bethel on Wednesday, October 8, they rode clean 
 across the State of Kentucky, entering Tennessee on 
 the 1 6th and reaching Nashville on the 19th. As show- 
 ing what they encountered on the way, I condense 
 from Asbury's Journal:
 
 84 Life of William McKcndrcc, 
 
 Wednesday, 8. — We rode fifteen miles to Shawnee Run, 
 and crossed Kentucky River at Curd's Ferry. The river is 
 as low as a stream, and the streams are nearly dried up, 
 
 Thursday, 9. — I preached on Hebrews iii. 12-14 at the new 
 house at Shawnee Run. We had rich entertainment for man 
 and beast at Robert Johnson's. 
 
 This "new house" was a church, one of the earliest 
 in that part of the State. The "rich entertainment at 
 Robert Johnson's" was a legitimate offset to the coarse 
 and unpalatable food that they were often compelled 
 to eat. 
 
 Friday, jo.— We rode to Pleasant Run to John Springer's. 
 It was a very warm day for the season. I had a running 
 blister at my side, yet I rode and walked thirty-two miles. 
 We refreshed ourselves at Crawford's Tavern on the way. 
 We have visited Knox, Madison, Mercer, and Washington 
 Counties, in this State. 
 
 At Springer's they remained from Friday evening 
 till Monday morning. On Sunday it rained so hard 
 that the bishops were "shut up," but McKendree met 
 the people and preached. It was a bad day when he 
 failed to meet a waiting audience. 
 
 Monday, 13. — We left John Springer's and came to Lewis 
 Thomas's, fifteen miles; a deep, damp, narrow path; the 
 underwood very wet. Crossed Cartwright's and Hardin's 
 Creeks. I gave a short sermon on Romans viii. 9: "H any 
 man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 
 
 Thursday, 14. — We began our march for Cumberland. We 
 were told by two persons that wc could not cross the Rolling 
 Fork of Salt River. I judged we could; and as I thought, 
 so it was; we forded it with ease. We came up a solitary 
 path east of the Level Woods and struck into the road to 
 Lee's Ferry. Fourteen miles of the latter part of this day*s 
 journey we rode through barrens of hickory, shrub oak, and 
 ftazel. Thirty miles, if not thirty-five, is the amount of this
 
 ^S'^^ over the Forces in the Great West. 85 
 
 day's work. In the morning there was a very great damp, and 
 in the afternoon it was, I thought, as warm as the west of 
 Georgia. 
 
 Wednesday, 15. — We crossed Green River, the main branch 
 of which riseth near the Crab Orchard. We crossed at the 
 mouth of Little Barren River. We then rode a bold push 
 for the Great Barren. Dining at Mr. Morrison's, I could not 
 eat wallet provision ; but happily for me, I was provided with 
 a little fresh mutton at the house, made warm in a little 
 space. Now we had unfavorable appearances of rain; we had 
 bleak, barren hills to ride, which, although beautiful to sight, 
 were painful to sense. The rain came in large and rapid 
 drops for fourteen miles. We were well soaked on all sides. 
 A little after dark we came to Mr. Hagin's, upon Big Bar- 
 ren River. A good house, an excellent fire to dry our cloth- 
 ing, good meat and milk for supper, and the cleanest beds — 
 all we had. I have paid for this route. 
 
 Preaching on the i8th at the house of a Brother 
 Parker, in Sumner County, Tenn., they were met by 
 four local preachers (Brothers McGee, Suggs, Jones, 
 and Speer) and had a season of great rejoicing. On 
 the 19th they had their first view of the city of Nash- 
 ville, which was founded by four hundred immigrants 
 from the Watauga Settlement, in East Tennessee, 
 under the leadership of James Robertson, in the winter 
 of 1779-80, and, after an early history as full of ro- 
 mance and of tragedy as any community ever passed 
 through, was now enjoying a peaceful and solid pros- 
 perity. The visitors found that the IMethodists had 
 erected a stone church on the public square, of which 
 Asbury said : "If it were floored, ceiled, and glazed, it 
 would be a noble house." Inside and outside of it a 
 congregation of one thousand persons was gathered. 
 Asbury, Whatcoat, and McKcndree preached in sue-
 
 86 Life of ]ViUiain McKcndrcc. 
 
 cession. The service lasted three hours, but there is 
 no record to the effect that anybody grew weary. 
 That sort of preaching was not to be heard every day. 
 I much doubt if any three men ever came to the town 
 who brought it a greater blessing. Very appropriate- 
 ly, after the lapse of more than a hundred years, the 
 Methodists of the city are just now (1913) setting up a 
 marker and tablet on the spot where the "noble" stone 
 house, without floor or ceiling or glazing, stood. It 
 is strange that the thing has not been done before. 
 
 On the next day, by special invitation no doubt, the 
 three visitors attended "a sacramental solemnity" 
 which had been in progress for four days at Drake's 
 Creek Meetinghouse, some ten or fifteen miles dis- 
 tant, under the care of Rev. Messrs. Hodge, Rankin, 
 McGee, Adair, and Craighead, of the Presbyterian 
 Church, and preached, not contra\'ersially, but still in 
 downright Methodist fashion. They got good and 
 gave good, and such fair exchange as that is not rob- 
 bery. "The Great Revival" had fairly begun in J^Iiddle 
 Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. AIcKendree 
 lighted his torch afresh at this Calvinistic altar and 
 shook the glowing sparks wherever he went. Another 
 extract from Asbury's journal is certainly not out of 
 place : ^ c^^ 
 
 Tuesday, October 21. — Yesterday, and especially during 
 the night, were witnessed scenes of deep interest. In the 
 intervals between preaching the people refreshed themselves 
 and horses and returned upon the ground. The stand was 
 in the open air, embosomed in a wood of lofty beech trees. 
 The ministers of God, Methodists and Presbyterians, united 
 their labors and mingled with the childlike simplicity of primi- 
 tive times. Fires blazing here and there dispelled the dark-
 
 Set over the Forces in the Great West. 87 
 
 ness, and the shouts of the redeemed captives and the cries 
 of precious souls struggling into life broke the silence of mid- 
 night. The weather was delightful, as if Heaven smiled, while 
 mercy flowed in abundant streams of salvation. We suppose 
 that there were at least thirty souls converted at this meet- 
 ing. I rejoice that God is visiting the sons of the Puritans, 
 who are candid enough to acknowledge their obligation to 
 the Methodists. 
 
 Not pausing longer than was necessary in the vi- 
 cinity of Nashville, Asbury and Whatcoat, still ac- 
 companied by McKendree, pursued their round across 
 the Cumberland Mountains, passing the Crab Orchard 
 (to be distinguished from the Kentucky settlement of 
 the same name) and v^hat is now Kingston, and 
 reached Knoxville on November i, a journey of more 
 than two hundred miles over difficult and dangerous 
 roads. At this point the bishops parted from Mc- 
 Kendree, they to go forward through the valley of the 
 French Broad into the Carollnas and he to return to 
 the duties of his district In Kentucky. 
 
 In the foregoing chapter I have dwelt somewhat at 
 length on details of travel to give the reader a clear 
 conception of the manner and order of the life which 
 McKendree and his associates led In the prosecution 
 of their high calling. Except, therefore, when I follow 
 them into entirely new fields, It will not be necessary 
 for me hereafter to be so full In my account of their 
 morvements.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 
 
 It is rather a remarkable fact, as before intimated, 
 that from 1792 to 1800 Methodism made no visible 
 progress in Kentucky and, in truth, scarcely held its 
 own. At the former date it had 1,808 members ; at the 
 latter, only 1,740, and this in spite of the other fact 
 that the population of the State had increased during 
 the same period from 73,000 to 264,303 souls. 
 
 There must be some good reason or reasons for this 
 sudden arrest of growth. It cannot be attributed to 
 the incompetency or unfaithfulness of the preachers. 
 Many of them were men of great ability and fine char- 
 acter. Merely to call the roll of their names is to 
 verify this assertion. Besides Haw^ and Ogden, al- 
 ready mentioned, there were Thomas Williamson, Wil- 
 son Lee, Francis Poythress, Barnabas McHenry, Peter 
 Massie, John Page, Benjamin Xorthcutt, John Ray, 
 William Burke, Jacob Lurton, John Kobler, Thomas 
 Wilkerson, James W^ard, and Henry Birchett. These 
 were the very flower of the itinerant army. 
 
 Neither can we find a satisfactory explanation of the 
 state of affairs under notice in the statement, which 
 is no doubt true, that great numbers of Methodists 
 moved on farther west ; for more were doubtless 
 coming in all the time than were going out. The gains 
 from immigration ought to have been at least as large 
 as the losses from emigration. 
 
 But the very newness of social conditions made re- 
 (88)
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 89 
 
 ligioiis work increasingly difficult. The people had all 
 been uprooted from their old, familiar surroundings 
 and set down in the midst of strange environments. 
 The natural tendency of such a change was to relax 
 the moral and religious restraints to which they had 
 been accustomed in their former homes. When the 
 beaten tracks of life were gone, the people followed 
 the devices and desires of their own hearts. Left 
 largely free from outward constraints, they also cast 
 off the authority of God. Everything about them 
 was unsettled. For the first thirty years of her ex- 
 istence Kentucky was never free from wars and rumors 
 of wars. No man could tell at just what hour it 
 would be necessary for him to fight for his own life 
 and the lives of his wife and children. Then, too, the 
 whole population was fermenting with the eager de- 
 sire to get large bodies of the best lands. The rude 
 surveys often crossed and recrossed one another. In 
 some sections titles were three deep. All this bred 
 innumerable conflicts of interest and stirred up envies, 
 jealousies, hatreds, and all manner of uncharitable- 
 ness. 
 
 The mass of the immigrants were good specimens of 
 the Scotch and English races. No new State ever had 
 better, but they suffered a certain deterioration from 
 the causes I have mentioned. Worse still, there was a 
 considerable element of floaters who had drifted in on 
 the top of the tide and had no thought of settling down 
 to the hard and steady tasks of good citizenship. 
 These were gamblers, drunkards, thieves, and loose 
 livers from the older communities. Whisky was 
 plentiful and cheap and the use of it very general.
 
 90 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 In its train came, as always, a long line of associated 
 evils. 
 
 At a very early day, morecrv^er, French infidelity be- 
 came widely spread throughout the trans-Alleghany 
 settlements. \i the close of our Revolutionary War 
 everything French was popular in America. It became 
 a sort of fad among the hunters and trappers of the 
 West to profess admiration for \'oltaire and Rousseau, 
 and contempt for all the tenets and usages of religion. 
 Just how this spirit of skepticism managed to propa- 
 gate itself, it would be difficult to say. But somehow or 
 other it got into the air, percolated through all classes 
 of society, and made converts in every quarter. It 
 was a strange spectacle, that of the uncultured and 
 self-assertive descendants of Scotch Covenanters and 
 English Puritans following the lead of teachers wdiose 
 delight it was to deny and denounce all the beliefs that 
 the ages had consecrated. 
 
 Dr. Redford insists that the action of the ^lethodists 
 in taking up an open antagonism to slavery also kept 
 a large number of intelligent and well-disposed people 
 from joining them. There may be something in that 
 view, but I am not disposed to consider it as carrying 
 much weight. 
 
 After all, it seems to me that the course of Haw and 
 Ogden in going after James O'Kelly put greater ob- 
 stacles in the way of the Church than all the things 
 that I have mentioned. As pioneers their influence 
 was great, and they threw it all against the cause which 
 they had so vigorously supported and defended. At a 
 later date Ogden repented of his folly, was readmitted 
 into the itinerancy, and died in good repute. But Haw
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 91 
 
 was not a man to turn backward. When his preju- 
 dices were once aroused, he became a bitter and un- 
 yielding partisan. He had probably known and admired 
 O'Kelly in Virginia and was ready to listen to what- 
 ever his old friend might have to say. At any rate, 
 when the great schismatic broke away after the Gen- 
 eral Conference of 1792 and undertook to set up a 
 new Church patterned after his own notions. Haw, 
 who had already located on account of his failing 
 health, followed him heart and soul. The infection of 
 O'Kellyism got into his very blood and disturbed and 
 perverted all his judgments. His violence against 
 Episcopal Methodism and its adherents passed all the 
 bounds of propriety. He did not now hesitate to 
 denounce even Bishop Asbury, whom he had long 
 loved and honored, as a base seel<er after power and 
 money. 
 
 At the time Haw was living in Sumner County, 
 Tenn., not far from the Kentucky line. He was so 
 popular that his neighbors had made him a present of 
 six hundred and forty acres of good land just for the 
 sake of keeping him among them. For a while It 
 looked as if he would lead them all after him in his 
 defection from the Church. Indeed, he did draw off 
 all the traveling and local preachers except sturdy 
 James Gwin, who had a way of putting his foot down 
 and refusing to take It up except for a good reason. 
 The congregations too were greatly disturbed. 
 
 What the results would have been If Providence 
 had not Intervened, It Is difficult to say. But It came 
 to pass that In 1795 William Burke was sent to the 
 Cumberland Circuit. He was surelv the man for the
 
 92 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 hour. Steady in his convictions, an able debater and 
 an eloquent preacher, and, withal, a man of the rarest 
 tact, he met Haw and beat him on his own field. 
 Through his influence the great majority of Meth- 
 odists returned to the fold, leaving only a scattered 
 few to support the cause of the schismatics. In Cen- 
 tral and Northern Kentucky, however, the plague 
 worked with varying energy for a good while longer, 
 and, as I have said, did an amount of damage that can- 
 not be overstated. 
 
 But as the century grew old there were signs of bet- 
 ter times. Isolated revivals of religion broke out here 
 and there, harbingers of that great outpouring of the 
 Spirit which began in 1799 and spread over the whole 
 country. So much has been written concerning it that 
 it is almost unnecessary to dwell long upon it in this 
 connection, but I cannot forbear a few paragraphs 
 in addition to what I have before said. The chief 
 human instrumentalities in the origin of the move- 
 ment were the two brothers. Revs. John and Wil- 
 liam McGee, the one a Methodist and the other a 
 Presbyterian, who emigrated from North Carolina to 
 Sumner County, Tenn., in 1797. In spite of their deep 
 doctrinal differences they were true yokefellows in 
 the gospel. Starting out in 1799 for a preaching tour 
 through the country between their homes and the Ohio 
 River, they made their first stop at a sacramental meet- 
 ing in the church of the Rev. Mr. McGrady, on Red 
 River, Logan County, Ky. Two other Presbyterian 
 ministers, Hodge and Rankin, were also present as 
 visitors. Out of abundant courtesy John McGee, the 
 only Methodist in the company, was asked to preach
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 93 
 
 first. He was followed in order by the rest. All spoke 
 with much liberty and animation. Though there was 
 deep feeling in the congregation from day to day, there 
 was no remarkable stir until Monday morning, when, 
 under the preaching of Mr. Hodge, "a. lady obtained 
 an uncommon blessing and began to shout the praises 
 of God." This was a little too much for Messrs. Mc- 
 Grady, Hodge, and Rankin. It infringed on their sense 
 of propriety, and they presently left the house. But 
 the two brothers McGee remained and carried on the 
 service, the people also staying in their seats. John 
 McGee had been appointed to follow Mr. Hodge with 
 a sermon, but the power of God so overcame him that 
 he could only exhort. The result was amazing. Every- 
 body in the audience was affected. The floor was 
 speedily covered with men and women crying for 
 mercy. Many found forgiveness and many others went 
 away in agony of spirit, praying for the great gift. 
 
 The next gathering was on Muddy River, about 
 three miles from Russellville, in the same county. 
 There a new thing happened. A number of people 
 loaded up their wagons with provisions enough to last 
 for several days, as well as with ample bed clothing, 
 and drove to the meeting place and camped on the 
 grounds. This was the real beginning of camp meet- 
 ings, which for the next half century played so im- 
 portant a part in the Methodist economy. McGee in 
 a letter written June 23, 1820, enumerates all the above 
 facts and says that *'the Lord was present and ap- 
 proved of their zeal by sealing a pardon to about forty 
 souls." 
 
 The news of such strange occurrences spread fast
 
 94 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 through the settlements; and when a regular camp 
 meeting was appointed a little later at a place just 
 south of the Cumberland Ridge, ten miles east of Gal- 
 latin, Tenn., there was "an increase of people and car- 
 riages of different descriptions.'' A great many Pres- 
 byterian and Methodist preachers were present, but 
 only a few Baptists. It is better to let McGee speak 
 again. He says : "Preaching commenced and the peo- 
 ple prayed, and the power of God attended. There was 
 a great cry for mercy. The nights were truly awful; 
 the camp ground was well illuminated ; the people were 
 differently exercised all over the ground, some exhort- 
 ing, some shouting, some praying, and some crying 
 for mercy, while others lay as dead men on the ground. 
 Some of the spiritually wounded fled to the woods, 
 and their groans could be heard all through the sur- 
 rounding groves as the groans of dying men. From 
 thence many came into the camp, rejoicing and prais- 
 ing God for having found redemption in the blood of 
 the Lamb. At this meeting it was computed that one 
 hundred souls were converted from nature to grace. 
 But perhaps the greatest meeting we ever witnessed in 
 this country took place shortly after on Desha's Creek, 
 near the Cumberland River. ^lany thousands of people 
 attended. The mighty power and mercy of God were 
 manifested. The people fell before the word like corn 
 before a storm of wind, and many rose from the dust 
 with divine glory shining in their countenances and 
 gave glory to God in such strains as made the hearts 
 of stubborn sinners to tremble : and after the first gust 
 of praise they would break forth in volleys of ex- 
 hortation."
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 95 
 
 In a preceding chapter we have noticed that Asbury, 
 Whatcoat, and ]\IcKendree on the day following their 
 first arrival at Nashville went to a meeting of similar 
 character at the Presbyterian church on Drake's Creek 
 and were greatly impressed with what they saw and 
 heard. It need not surprise us, therefore, to learn that 
 when McKendree again reached Kentucky via the 
 Cumberland Mountains and Knoxville he brought the 
 gracious tidings with him and spread them far and 
 wide. It was partly, at least, due to his influence that 
 the fire began to burn at various places in that region. 
 He came at a good time and measured up to all the 
 opportunities that were set before him. The temporary 
 "union" which the Presbyterians and Methodists ef- 
 fected at the beginning of the revival could not, of 
 course, be permanent. The two Churches had come 
 together under the impulse of the Spirit to accomplish 
 a great and definite end. Nothing could have been 
 more Christlike than the attitude which they displayed 
 toward each other. But each Church had some highly 
 prized peculiarities of doctrine and usage which it did 
 not care to surrender and which, indeed, it could not 
 have surrendered without losing something of its ef- 
 ficiency. Through McKendree's wise and godly man- 
 agement the Methodists did their full share of the 
 labor in the revival itself, and also came out of it with 
 the perfect good will of their fellow Christians, their 
 polity intact and in full working order. 
 
 From that time forward ^lethodism had an almost 
 unbroken career of success In evangelizing the West. 
 It is impossible to read the mighty narrative of its 
 achievements without reaching the conclusion that
 
 96 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 McKendree, more perhaps than any other one man, 
 contributed to the aggregate result. He had almost un- 
 limited physical strength and endurance. No journey 
 was too long nor too hard for him to undertake when 
 it seemed necessary. For several years he lived more 
 in the saddle than anywhere else. Wherever he went he 
 was at once recognized as a new force. His preaching 
 was of the highest order. Men were frequently heard 
 to say after listening to him : *'Did you ever hear the 
 like?" Several of his brethren who had preceded him 
 perhaps equaled him in particular respects, but not 
 one of them was a match for him on the whole ground. 
 As an organizer he was without a peer. Not even Mr. 
 Wesley himself had a clearer realization of the fact 
 that organization is necessary to conserve the results 
 of a religious upheaval. Itinerant ministers being all 
 too scarce, he hunted up and put to work every avail- 
 able local preacher, and in this way brought out a good 
 many worthy men who afterwards became conspic- 
 uously useful in the regular ranks. Not content to 
 hold the ground already gained, he created new circuits 
 wherever he could discover an opening for them. In- 
 stead of standing on the defensive, he acted upon the 
 belief that the only safe course for the Church is to 
 make incessant warfare upon Satan and his kingdom. 
 His wisdom was justified by the results. Not only 
 in Kentucky and Tennessee, but beyond the Ohio and 
 the Mississippi, the cause took on new life and flour- 
 ished as never before. 
 
 As noticed on a previous page, McKendree left As- 
 bury at Knoxville in November, 1800, and returned to 
 Kentucky, passing through Cumberland Gap and tak-
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 97 
 
 ing his old route thence to the Blue Grass region. 
 Through the year that followed he was perhaps the 
 busiest man in all that quarter. In fact, when the Con- 
 ference met October 31, 1801, at Felix Earnest's, on 
 the Nollichucky River, Greene County, Tenn., neither 
 he nor the preachers under him were present. As- 
 bury's journal says: "Our brethren in Kentucky did 
 not attend ; they pleaded the greatness of the work of 
 God." How great it was may be gathered from this, 
 that at the next Conference, held at Strother's, Sumner 
 County, Tenn., October 2, 1802, it was found necessary 
 to divide McKendree's district into three — Holston, 
 Cumberland, and Kentucky. He retained Kentucky. 
 The Conference itself was full of interest. It appeared 
 from the reports of the preachers that during the year 
 there had been great gains in the membership. Every- 
 body was hopeful. Asbury himself was quite sick, but 
 stuck to his task. The record in his journal is very 
 brief : "My stomach and speech were pretty well gone. 
 I applied to Mr. William Hodges and J\Ir. William Mc- 
 Gee, Presbyterian ministers, to supply my lack of pub- 
 lic service, which they did with great fervency and 
 fidelity. With great pleasure and in great pain I heard 
 them both. I was able to ordain, by employing Brother 
 McKendree to examine those who were presented, and 
 to station the preachers, I hope, for the glory of God, 
 the benefit of the people, and the advantage of the 
 preachers." 
 
 McKendree's service to Asbury did not stop with 
 the session of the Conference. The two again became 
 traveling companions across the Cumberland Moun- 
 tains and through Eastern Tennessee for more than
 
 98 Life of William McKeudree. 
 
 two hundred miles. Asbury's journal tells the story 
 very simply. Here is a brief extract from it: "Brother 
 jMcKendree made me a tent of his own and John Wat- 
 son's blankets and happily saved me from taking cold 
 while I slept about two hours under my grand mar- 
 quee." And here is another: "I have been sick for 
 twenty-three days. O the tale of woe I might relate ! 
 My dear McKendree had to lift me up and down from 
 my horse like a helpless child." 
 
 Leaving the venerable Bishop on November 8, ^Ic- 
 Kendree turned back once more to his district, now 
 somewhat circumscribed, but still as large as an empire. 
 During the year that followed things moved forward 
 at a great rate. The work showed such signs of en- 
 largement that from the Conference which met at 
 i\rt. Gerizim, Harrison County, Ky., October 2, 1803, 
 Bishop Asbury found it necessary to send William 
 Burke as presiding elder to form a new district north- 
 west of the Ohio River. The statistics also tell a 
 wonderful stor}^ of progress. 
 
 It was understood that McKendree would go to the 
 General Conference which was to meet in Baltimore 
 in Mrv, 1804, and he received some money to assist 
 in paying the expense of the trip. But at the last 
 moment he concluded that he ought not to absent him- 
 self for so long a time from the active duties of the 
 field, and so turned over the expense money to Wil- 
 liam Burke and stayed in his district. In October, 
 1804, Conference again met at Mt. Gerizim. Bishop 
 Asbury having taken sick on the way thither, neither 
 he nor Bishop Whatcoat, who accompanied him. was 
 able to attend the session. In the absence of the two
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 99 
 
 Bishops McKendree was elected President, and ad- 
 mirably performed all the duties of the episcopal office 
 except the ordination of the deacons and elders. 
 
 At the Conference of 1805, which met in Scott 
 County, Ky., and over which Bishop Asbury presided, 
 McKendree was removed from the Kentucky to the 
 Cumberland District, including all of ^Middle and West 
 Tennessee, also Mississippi on the south and Indiana, 
 Illinois, and Missouri on the west. In apparent viola- 
 tion of the rule adopted in 1792, he had already served 
 five years on the former district. Why this irregularity 
 had been allowed by men who were sticklers for the 
 Discipline I cannot imagine, and Bishop Paine pro- 
 fesses himself unable to explain it. 
 
 From that time on to the end of his life McKendree 
 became an adopted son of Tennessee. His father and 
 other relatives removed thither from Virginia in 1810, 
 and with them he made his home, as far as such a 
 traveler could be said to have a home. The place of 
 their residence was about twenty-five or thirty miles 
 distant from Nashville. In that city the Bishop had 
 many devoted friends who counted it always an honor 
 to receive him as a guest. After a lapse of more than 
 eighty years, memories of him are still in the air. 
 
 The place of holding the Western Conference was 
 shifted in 1806 back to Ebenezer Church, Greene 
 County, East Tennessee, where it convened on 
 September 20. By all tokens it was a good session. 
 There was preaching morning, noon, and night. On 
 Sunday Asbury and McKendree both preached from 
 a stand In the woods, and at least two thousand people 
 were In the audience. The ^flsslsslppl preachers did
 
 loo Life of William McKendree. 
 
 not think they could be spared from their circuits and 
 did not come. Asbury's journal has an exultant note: 
 "There are fourteen hundred added within the bounds 
 of this Conference, fifty-five preachers stationed, all 
 pleased'^ This latter fact is so remarkable that it de- 
 serves to be italicized. Another entry shows the heroic 
 quality of the men and the tenderness of the Bishop: 
 "The brethren were in want and could not provide 
 clothes for themselves. So I parted with my watch and 
 my coat and my shirt." No wonder that they followed 
 his leadership. 
 
 The year 1807 w^as one of great labor and priva- 
 tion with McKendree. We have seen that both Illinois 
 and Missouri were included in his district. Jesse Wal- 
 ker had been sent to the former and John Travis to the 
 latter to get the lay of the land and map out new cir- 
 cuits. Two better men for such an enterprise could not 
 easily have been found. They rejoiced in holding posts 
 on the front line. Difficulties did not discourage them 
 nor dangers frighten them. Walker, in particular, was 
 the Daniel Boone of ^lethodism. But they needed the 
 help of an experienced and competent elder. So Mc- 
 Kendree determined to visit them. Fortunately an ac- 
 count of the trip written by James Gwin, who shared 
 it with him, has been preserved. It is so illuminative 
 of times and conditions that, though it has often been 
 published, I venture to reproduce a considerable por- 
 tion of it here: 
 
 In the year 1807 Brother McKendree, A. Goddard, and 
 myself set out to visit the settlements of Illinois. We crossed 
 the Ohio River, took the wilderness, and traveled until night. 
 Not being able to get to any habitation, we camped out.
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. loi 
 
 Brother McKendree made us some tea, and we lay down un- 
 der the branches of a friendly beech and had a pleasant night's 
 rest. Next morning we set out early, traveled hard, and got 
 some distance into the prairie, and here we took up for the 
 night. This was a night of trouble. After we had taken a 
 morsel to eat and offered up our prayers to God, we lay down 
 to rest and fell into a deep sleep. About eleven o'clock 
 Brother McKendree awoke and found that our horses were 
 all gone. After some search we found that they had passed 
 over a small stream and had taken back the way we had come. 
 Not knowing whether they had been stolen or had left of 
 their own accord, leaving Brother McKendree at our camp. 
 Brother Goddard and myself went in pursuit of them. As 
 the night was dark, we got dry bark, which afforded us a 
 tolerable light. We followed their tracks across the prairie 
 and overtook them about eight o'clock the next morning, hav- 
 ing traveled fifteen miles on foot. The next night we reached 
 the first settlement. We tarried a day there. Crossing Kas- 
 kaskia River, we reached Turkey Hill and lodged with an old 
 Brother Scott. Here we met with Jesse Walker, who had 
 formed a circuit and had three camp meetings appointed for 
 us. After resting a few days, we set out for the first camp 
 meeting. In twelve miles we reached the Mississippi. Hav- 
 ing no means of taking our horses across, we sent them back, 
 crossed the river, and, with our baggage on our shoulders, 
 went to the camp ground, having fallen in with Brother Travis 
 on the way. About forty were converted at this meeting. 
 
 From this camp meeting we returned across the river to 
 Judge S.'s, who refreshed us and sent forward our baggage 
 in a cart to Brother Garrettson's, where our next meeting was 
 to be held, which was called Three Springs. We arrived on 
 Friday morning on the camp ground, which was situated in 
 a beautiful grove surrounded by a prairie. A considerable 
 congregation had collected, for the news of the other meetings 
 had gone abroad and produced much excitement. Some were 
 in favor of the work, and others were opposed to it. A 
 certain Major had raised a "company of lewd fellows of the 
 baser sort" to drive us from the ground. On Saturday, while
 
 102 Life of William McKcndrce. 
 
 I was preaching, the Major and his company rode into the 
 congregation and halted, which produced considerable con- 
 fusion and alarm. I stopped preaching for a moment and 
 quite calmly invited them to be off with themselves, and they 
 retired to the spring for a fresh drink of brandy. The Major 
 said that he had heard of these Methodists before; that they 
 always broke up the peace of the people wherever they went ; 
 that they preached against horse-racing, card-playing, and 
 every other kind of amusement. However, they used no vio- 
 lence against us, but determined to camp on the ground and 
 prevent us from doing harm. But at three o'clock, while 
 Brother Goddard and I were singing a hymn, an awful sense 
 of the divine power fell on the congregation. Victory was on 
 the Lord's side. Many were converted, and by sunrise the next 
 morning there was the shout of a king in the camp. It was 
 Sabbath morning, and I thought it the most beautiful morning 
 I had ever seen. At eleven o'clock Brother McKendree ad- 
 ministered the holy sacrament ; and while he was dwelling 
 upon its origin, nature, and design, some of the ]\Iajor's com- 
 pany were affected, and we had a melting time. After sacra- 
 ment, Brother McKendree preached to a large congregation, 
 all the principal men of the country and all in reach who 
 could get there being present. His text was, "Come, let us 
 reason together," and perhaps no man ever managed the 
 subject better or with more effect. His reasoning on the 
 atonement, the great plan of salvation, and the love of God 
 was so clear and strong and was delivered with such pathos 
 that the congregation involuntarily arose to their feet and 
 pressed toward him from all parts. While he was preaching 
 he very ingeniously adverted to the conduct of the ^lajor, 
 and remarked : "We are Americans, and some of us have 
 fought for our liberty and have come here to teach men the 
 way to heaven." This seemed to strike the Major, and he 
 afterwards became friendly, and has remained so ever since. 
 
 We went next to Goshen camp meeting. Here we had 
 comfortable camps and an arbor in the form of an "L" large 
 enough to shelter seven hundred persons. The stand was in 
 an unsheltered spot, between tlie two squares. \\\' had also
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 103 
 
 a small log meetinghouse, in which our first quarterly meet- 
 ing was held. Preaching began on Friday and was kept up 
 regularly. The people, having heard of the revival at the 
 other meetings, flocked out in great numbers, many to see 
 the strange work. Some brought brandy and cards for their 
 amusement during the meeting. On Friday and Saturday the 
 word preached seemed to do little good. An awful cloud 
 seemed to rest upon us. In passing the door of the preacher's 
 tent I saw Brother McKendree alone, bathed in tears. I 
 stepped in, and he said to me : "Brother, we have been 
 preaching for ourselves and not for the Lord. Go, brother, 
 and preach Christ crucified to the people." My heart was 
 deeply affected. We fell upon our knees and implored the 
 help of God. This was about sunset. I preached at candle- 
 lighting. My text was: "Behold the man!" It commenced 
 raining shortly after I began to preach; and as the audience 
 was under shelter, I did not stop, although exposed to the 
 rain. My heart was fired and my tongue loosened in an 
 unusual manner. For a few moments nothing but sobs and 
 sighs were heard among the people. At length the whole 
 congregation seemed suddenly smitten with the power of 
 God. Many fell as in battle, and were presently raised to tell 
 of pardoning mercy and encourage others to seek the Lord. 
 We continued all night in the work. On the next day (Sun- 
 day), at nine o'clock a.m., the Lord's Supper was admin- 
 istered. It was a memorable day, and eternity only will re- 
 veal the result. On Monday, the last day of the meeting, one 
 hundred joined the Church. 
 
 McKendree also gives a concise account of this 
 visitation and adds some interesting facts. The first 
 camp meeting mentioned, being beyond the Mississippi 
 River, was in Missouri and the first ever held in that 
 State. In getting to it the preachers walked about forty 
 miles and carried their saddlebags. McKendree 
 further states: "Four Sabbaths excepted, I have at- 
 tended popular meetings ever since February, in which
 
 I04 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 time I have ridden about 2,700 miles through tlie wil- 
 derness to IlHnois and back, spent considerable time in 
 the most sickly part of that and this country, and yet, 
 blessed be God ! my health and strength have been 
 preserved." 
 
 Up to this time no Conference had been held in the 
 State of Ohio; but the population of the State, which 
 is now and for a long time has been dominantly Meth- 
 odistic, was increasing so rapidly, and the Church was 
 showing such signs of life and growth, that everybody 
 felt that there ought to be a gathering of the itinerants 
 somewhere within its bounds. It was an eventful day, 
 that 14th of September, 1807, when they convened in 
 Chillicothe. Asbury, as usual, chronicles the chief in- 
 cidents: *'0n Monday we opened our Conference in 
 great peace and love and continued until Friday. A 
 delegation of seven members was chosen to the Gen- 
 eral Conference. There were thirteen preachers added, 
 and we found an addition of 2,200 members to the so- 
 ciety in these bounds. Seven deacons were elected and 
 ordained and ten elders. Only two preachers located. 
 Sixty-five were stationed." 
 
 As the General Conference was not yet a delegated 
 body, the election of seven delegates was purely a 
 voluntary matter. The distance to Baltimore was so 
 great and the traveling so costly that most of the 
 preachers could not avail themselves of their right to 
 seats in the chief synod of the Church ; and they, 
 therefore, wisely agreed to choose seven men who 
 could fitly represent them. Of these seven, only five 
 made an appearance when the roll was called in May, 
 1808. William McKendree very naturally headed the
 
 Taking a Fresh Start in Kentucky. 105 
 
 list. The other four were William Burke, John Sale, 
 Benjamin Lakin, and Elisha W. Bowman — a goodly 
 company. 
 
 McKendree was no doubt returned from the Con- 
 ference to the Cumberland District ; but as the General 
 Minutes were not published till after his election to the 
 episcopacy in the following spring, the name of John 
 Ward, w^ho succeeded him, is put down in that place. 
 As this year closes the labors of McKendree as a pre- 
 siding elder, it is well to note the progress that had 
 been made in the Western Conference since he took 
 charge of the only district which it contained in 1800. 
 Then there were 1,741 members; now there are 16,- 
 887. The one district had become five, and the four- 
 teen preachers had become sixty-six. This enlarge- 
 ment, too, was not spasmodic, but normal and healthy. 
 Wise men could see in it the promise of yet greater 
 things. The Church was fairly intrenched, and noth- 
 ing short of a great moral catastrophe could dislodge 
 it.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Elected to the Episcopacy. 
 
 I HAVE pointed out in a preceding chapter the fact 
 that McKcndrcc had vokintarily remained away from 
 the General Conference of 1804. Still he was not a 
 novice in the matter of ecclesiastical legislation ; for 
 he had been a member of the Conferences of 1792, 
 1796, and 1800, and in the last-mentioned body had 
 taken some considerable part. But he was now in 
 every sense of the term a more capable man than he 
 had been on any of the former occasions. His eight 
 years of responsible leadership in the West had brought 
 him not only an increased depth of religious experi- 
 ence, but also a wide vision of the wants of the Church. 
 Those who knew him intimately knew that he would 
 make his mark in the deliberations and discussions of 
 the body ; but few, if any, were quite prepared to see 
 him take the very highest rank among his brethren. 
 
 On the Sunday before the Conference began he was 
 appointed to preach in the Light Street Church. A 
 great many of the delegates had already arrived in the 
 city and were present to hear his sermon. It is au- 
 thentically known that he was reluctant to undertake 
 the service. When he stood up in the pulpit, his ap- 
 pearance was far from reassuring. He was not ar- 
 rayed in a distinctly clerical garb. His clothes were 
 of coarse cloth and lacked much of fitting him. The 
 bottom of his vest barely reached the top of his trou- 
 sers, and when he grew animated his red flannel shirt 
 
 (106)
 
 Elected to tlve Episcopacy. 107 
 
 became distinctly visible. Nor were matters improved 
 when he announced his hymn and began his oi:)ening 
 prayer. Nathan Bangs, who was in the audience, 
 looked on him with rather a critical eye as "an awk- 
 ward backwoodsman," and writes that "he seemed to 
 falter in his speech, clipping some of his words at the 
 end and occasionally hanging upon a syllable as if it 
 were difficult for him to pronounce the word." His 
 text was Jeremiah viii. 21, 22: "For the hurt of the 
 daughter of my people am I hurt ; I am black ; aston- 
 ishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in 
 Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not 
 the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" 
 Dr. Bangs further adds: 
 
 His introduction appeared tame, his sentences broken and 
 disjointed, and his elocution very defective. He at length 
 introduced his main subject, which was to show the spiritual 
 disease of the Jewish Church and of the human family gen- 
 erally. And then he entered upon his second proposition, 
 which was to analyze the feelings which such a state of things 
 awakened in the souls of God's faithful ambassadors. But 
 when he came to speak of the blessed effects upon the heart 
 of the balm which God had prepared for the healing of the 
 nations, he seemed to enter fully into the element in which 
 his soul delighted to move and have its being, and he soon 
 carried the whole congregation away with him into the re- 
 gions of experimental religion. 
 
 Remarking upon the objections which some would make to 
 the expression of the feelings realized by a person fully re- 
 stored to health by an application of the "sovereign balm for 
 every wound," he referred to the shouts of applause so often 
 heard upon our national jubilee in commemoration of our 
 emancipation from political thralldom, and then said: "How 
 much more cause has an immortal soul to rejoice and give 
 glory to God for its spiritual deliverance from the bondage
 
 io8 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 of sin !" This was spoken with a soul overflowing with the 
 most hallowed and exalted feelings and with an emphasis 
 that was like the sudden bursting of a cloud surcharged with 
 water. The congregation was instantly overwhelmed with a 
 shower of divine grace from the upper world. At first sudden 
 shrieks, as of persons in distress, were heard in different parts 
 of the house, then shouts of praise, and in every direction 
 sobs and groans. The eyes of the people overflowed with 
 tears, while many were prostrated upon the floor or lay help- 
 less on the seats. A very large, athletic-looking preacher, 
 sitting by my side, suddenly fell upon his seat as if pierced 
 by a bullet, and I felt my heart melting under emotions which 
 I could not resist. 
 
 After this sudden shower the clouds were dispersed, and 
 the Sun of Righteousness shone out most serenely and delight- 
 fully, producing upon all a present consciousness of the divine 
 approbation. When the preacher descended from the pulpit, 
 all were filled with admiration of his talents and were ready 
 to "magnify the grace of God in him," as a chosen messenger 
 of good tidings to the lost, saying in their hearts: "This is the 
 man whom God delights to honor." 
 
 It is proper at this point to let McKendree's best and 
 fullest biographer speak : 
 
 With the exception of Mr. Asbury, no preacher in the 
 connection combined so many qualifications for the office of 
 bishop as did McKendree. His piety was deep and uniform. 
 He was single-hearted, magnanimous, generous, and of most 
 refined and exquisite sensibility. With the discipline and 
 government of the Church he was thoroughly acquainted, 
 probably more familiar with ecclesiastical law than any of 
 his contemporaries. As a preacher he was inferior to none 
 in the clear comprehension and able advocacy of doctrines, in 
 lucid and natural descriptions of religious emotions, and in 
 close and searching application of Christian ethics to their 
 practical developments in the daily walks of life, while in the 
 power and effectiveness of his ministrations he stood as a 
 prince among his brethren. Nor was there any rudeness in
 
 Elected to the Episcopacy. 109 
 
 his manners. He had enjoyed the benefit of highly cultivated 
 society in the Old Dominion — was acquainted with the courte- 
 sies of social life. And without sacrificing the simplicity of 
 his character, there was something in his manners which won 
 the esteem of all with whom he came in contact and im- 
 pressed them with the conviction that, while he was a true 
 gentleman, he was also a true and noble specimen of the 
 Christian minister. His fine personal appearance — about six 
 feet tall, exquisitely proportioned — his beaming, prominent, 
 mild, dark eyes, black hair, delicate white skin, and noble 
 Grecian contour of face and forehead were remarkably pre- 
 possessing. His voice was clear, soft, and highly musical. 
 And when, in his happiest moments in the pulpit, I have 
 looked into his face, all radiant with intellect and smiling in 
 every feature with the reflected piety and benignity of his full 
 and happy soul, and listened to the accents of that most lute- 
 like and persuasive voice, I have thought that I never heard 
 such a voice or so felt the charm of truth and the attractions 
 of piety. The whole man seemed to speak. And then there 
 was associated with the words he uttered his long, self-sacri- 
 ficing career, his unsuspected purity of life, his unmurmuring 
 submission to hardships for the purpose of preaching Christ, 
 and his daily exemplification of the power and loveliness of 
 pure religion. 
 
 Bishop Asbury was present and was heard to say, 
 'That sermon will make him a bishop," and his pre- 
 diction proved true. Bishop Whatcoat, much beloved 
 by everybody, had died on July 5, 1806, at the resi- 
 dence of his friend, Judge Bassett, at Dover, Dela., 
 in the seventy-second year of his age ; and it was neces- 
 sary that at least one new bishop should be chosen. 
 Ezekiel Cooper wanted seven, one for each Confer- 
 ence. Others were much in favor of two or more. 
 But the Conference by a decided vote determined on 
 one only. On the 12th of May, by a vote of ninety-five
 
 no Life of IVilliaDi McKcndrcc. 
 
 out of one hundred and twenty-eight, McKendree was 
 chosen, and on the i8th was ordained by Bishop As- 
 bury, assisted by Jesse Lee, Freeborn Garrettson, 
 Thomas Ware, and PhiHp Bruce. He was the first 
 native American to be so honored, and until the com- 
 ing of Joshua Soule was undoubtedly the greatest man 
 to occupy the ofiice. 
 
 Coke was in South Wales when he heard the news 
 of McKendree's election, and wrote him the following 
 characteristic letter of date October 5, 1808: 
 
 To Bishop McKendree: 
 
 I write to you, my very dear brother and friend, not to 
 congratulate you on your election to the office of bishop (for 
 I believe you regard not office nor honor any further than 
 you may serve God thereby), but to express my regard for 
 you and the pleasure I feel (notwithstanding what I have 
 written above) at your being united to my old and venerable 
 brother, Asbury, in the great work in which he is engaged. 
 I am persuaded that God has chosen you to help my dear 
 brother and that you will go on with him in perfect union 
 in blessing the American Continent under divine grace. 
 
 You are mild; you are moderately and properly reserved 
 and do not aim at an overbearing exercise of power. I have 
 not had a large acquaintance with you ; but your person and 
 your voice are as fresh to me as if 3'ou were now with me in 
 the same room, and I greatly mistake if I do not taste your 
 spirit. Go on, brother, walking with God and united to him. 
 Your field of action is great. You have, perhaps, ten thou- 
 sand pulpits open to you. But the grand point which must 
 be engraved continually on your forehead, as it were, and oti 
 your heart is the harmony and union of the Methodist Con- 
 nection in America. God bless you! My dearest wife joins 
 me in love to you. Pray for us. 
 
 This General Conference of 1808 was epochal in 
 many respects, chiefly in this : that it framed and
 
 Elected to the Episcopacy. iii 
 
 enacted the written constitution under which the 
 Church has since Hved. Up to that time these quadren- 
 nial assemblies were simply mass conventions of the 
 whole body of traveling ministers, with full and un- 
 restricted authority to take any action that might seem 
 proper. They could by a mere majority vote alter or 
 abolish the Discipline or change the doctrines of the 
 Church. The fact that they had not as yet undertaken 
 to adopt any such radical measures was no guaranty 
 that they would not do so in the future. The stability 
 of the Church and its institutions could not wisely be 
 allowed to depend on the varying judgment of a mere 
 popular assembly, especially when it was certain that 
 this assembly would be made up in large measure from 
 the few central Conferences that were close to Balti- 
 more. 
 
 It is not strange, therefore, that the New York, 
 New England, Western, and Southern Conferences 
 should have sent up a memorial embodying the fol- 
 lowing statement: "We are deeply impressed with the 
 thorough conviction that a representative or delegated 
 General Conference, composed of a specific number on 
 principles of equal representation from the Annual 
 Conferences, would be much more conducive to the 
 prosperity and general unity of the whole body than 
 the present indefinite and numerous body of ministers 
 collected together unequally from the various Confer- 
 ences, to the great inconvenience of the ministry and 
 damage of the work of God." 
 
 This memorial was presented on May 9, three days 
 after the General Conference had assembled. On the 
 next day a motion was introduced by Stephen G. Ros- 
 8
 
 112 Life of William McKcndrce. 
 
 zell, of the Baltimore Conference, and William Burke, 
 of the Western Conference, to the effect that a com- 
 mittee be appointed "to draw up such regulations as 
 they may think best to regulate the General Confer- 
 ence." Bishop Asbury, who was greatly in favor of 
 the proposed action, interposed with another motion 
 to the effect ''that the committee be formed of an 
 equal number from each of the Annual Conferences." 
 Up to that time the bishops, of course, had the same 
 right to take part in the deliberations of the Confer- 
 ence as the other preachers. In his admirable "Con- 
 stitutional History" Bishop Tigert says : "This motion 
 of Bishop Asbury was excellent parliamentary tactics, 
 for it insured to the memorialists a majority of the 
 committee for which they asked. Had the committee 
 been miscellaneously selected, the character of the plan 
 brought in for the action of the Conference would 
 have been very doubtful." The motion of Asbury 
 prevailed, and it was later determined that the com- 
 mittee should be composed of two members from each 
 of the Annual Conferences: Ezekiel Cooper and John 
 Wilson, from the New York ; George Pickering and 
 Joshua Soule, from the New England ; William ]\Ic- 
 Kendree and William Burke, from the Western ; Wil- 
 liam Phoebus and Josiah Randle, from the South Caro- 
 lina ; Philip Bruce and Jesse Lee, from the Virginia ; 
 Stephen G. Roszell and Nelson Reed, from the Balti- 
 more ; and John McClaskey and Thomas Ware, from 
 the Philadelphia Conference. These were all picked 
 men and competent, if anybody was, to handle the mat- 
 ter under consideration. 
 
 At its first session this committee, after conversing
 
 Elected to the Episcopacy. 113 
 
 largely on the whole subject, appointed a subcommit- 
 tee of three — Cooper, Soule, and Bruce — to mature 
 and bring in a plan for consideration ; and this sub- 
 committee on meeting determined that each one of the 
 three should write out his own views and present them 
 the next day. When the day came, both Soule and 
 Cooper had their papers ready, but Bruce had written 
 nothing. After considerable debate, Bruce agreed 
 with Soule, and Cooper finally yielded to them, but not 
 till he had warmly advocated his own views. The 
 main point of difference touched what is now the third 
 restrictive rule. Cooper's suggestion ran in these 
 words : ''They shall not do away with episcopacy, 
 nor reduce our ministry to a Presbyterial parity." 
 This was open to the objection that it did not define 
 the sort of episcopacy it was intended to protect. 
 Soule, on the other hand, insisted on this language: 
 "The General Conference shall not change or alter any 
 part of our government, so as to do away with epis- 
 copacy or destroy the plan of our itinerant general 
 superintendency." Under this provision any attempt 
 to create a diocesan episcopacy or to alter any essen- 
 tial feature of the then existing general superintend- 
 ency would, of course, be an Infraction of the consti- 
 tution, a fact which Cooper and all concerned very 
 well knew. It was a specific form of episcopacy that 
 Soule wanted to guard. 
 
 The report of the subcommittee was accepted by the 
 whole committee and on the morning of the i6th was 
 presented to the General Conference. Its importance 
 justifies its reproduction here:
 
 114 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 1. The General Conference shall be composed of delegates 
 from the Annual Conferences. 
 
 2. The delegates shall be chosen by ballot, without debate, 
 in the Annual Conferences respectively, in the last meeting of 
 the Conference previous to the meeting of the General Con- 
 ference. 
 
 3. E^ch Annual Conference respectively shall have a right 
 to send seven elders, members of their Conference, as dele- 
 gates to the General Conference. 
 
 4. Each Annual Conference shall have a right to send one 
 delegate, in addition to the seven, for every ten members 
 belonging to such Conference over and above fifty — so that 
 if there be sixty members, they shall send eight; if seventy, 
 they shall send nine ; and so on in proportion. 
 
 5. The General Conference shall meet on the first day of 
 May, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twelve, 
 and thenceforward on the first day of May once in four 
 years perpetuall}-, at such place or places as shall be fixed on 
 by the General Conference from time to time. 
 
 6. At all times, when the General Conference is met, it 
 shall take two-thirds of the whole number of delegates to form 
 a quorum. 
 
 7. One of the original general superintendents shall preside 
 in the General Conference ; but in case no general superin- 
 tendent is present, the General Conference shall choose a 
 president pro tern. 
 
 8. The General Conference shall have full power to make 
 rules, regulations, and canons for our Church under the fol- 
 lowing limitations and restrictions, viz. : 
 
 The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change 
 our Articles of Religion nor establish any new standards of 
 doctrine. 
 
 They shall not lessen the number of seven delegates from 
 each Annual Conference, nor allow of a greater number from 
 any Annual Conference than is provided in the fourth para- 
 graph of this section. 
 
 They shall not change or alter any part or rule of our
 
 Elected to the Episcopacy. 115 
 
 government so as to do away episcopacy or to destroy the 
 plan of our itinerant general superintendency. 
 
 They shall not revoke or change the General Rules of the 
 United Societies. 
 
 They shall not do away the privileges of our ministers or 
 preachers of trial by a committee and an appeal ; neither shall 
 they do away the privileges of our members of trial before 
 the society, or by a committee, and of an appeal. 
 
 They shall not appropriate the produce of the Book Concern 
 or of the Chartered Fund to any purpose other than for the 
 benefit of the traveling, superannuated, supernumerary, and 
 worn-out preachers, their wives, widows, and children. 
 
 Provided, nevertheless, that upon the joint recommendation 
 of all the Annual Conferences, then a majority of two-thirds 
 of the General Conference succeeding shall suffice to alter 
 any of the above restrictions. 
 
 A whole day of discussion followed. To the general 
 surprise, Jesse Lee opposed the report, and that on a 
 mere side issue, insisting- that the delegates should be 
 chosen, not by ballot, but by the law of seniority. 
 Others followed his lead and attacked different pro- 
 visions of the plan. Late in the afternoon, by a par- 
 liamentary process that would not now be held in or- 
 der, Ezekiel Cooper and Joshua Wells oftered an awk- 
 wardly framed motion, which was carried, "to post- 
 pone the present question to make room for the con- 
 sideration of a new resolution as preparatory to the 
 minds of the brethren to determine on the present sub- 
 ject." The new resolution ran as follows : "Each An- 
 nual Conference respectively without debate shall an- 
 nually choose by ballot its own presiding elders." It 
 was an attempt to take away from the bishops in large 
 part the power of appointment, which had always up to 
 that time been held to inhere in the episcopacy. There
 
 ii6 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 was much debate. But at last the resolution was de- 
 feated by a vote of y^ to 52. Just at this juncture 
 further action was interrupted and McKendree was 
 ordained. It was not strange, therefore, that, having 
 been inducted under such circumstances, he should 
 have in 1820 and always looked upon any limitation 
 of the episcopal power of appointment as an invasion 
 of the constitution. 
 
 On Wednesday afternoon, the i8th inst., it was 
 moved and carried that the vote on the first resolution 
 of the committee's report should be at once taken and 
 by ballot. When the ballot w^as counted, it was found 
 that the resolution had failed of adoption by a vote of 
 64 to 57. This was equivalent to the defeat of the 
 whole measure. Great excitement followed. The 
 most of the New Englanders withdrew from the Con- 
 ference and began preparations to go home, counting 
 their further presence useless ; and the Westerners 
 were in no comfortable frame of mind. It really 
 looked as if the whole Church might go to pieces. But 
 the w^ise counsels of Asbury, ^IcKendree, and Red- 
 ding prevailed, and the dissatisfied brethren concluded 
 to remain a little longer to see if something could not 
 yet be done. 
 
 ^Matters stood in that shape from Wednesday till the 
 following ]\Ionday morning. 
 
 When Monday's session came on, Leonard Cassel 
 and Stephen G. Roszell moved that the question of the 
 place for holding the next General Conference be de- 
 layed "till it shall be determined who will compose the 
 General Conference." This was virtually a recon- 
 sideration of the whole subject. The motion prevailed,
 
 Elected to the Episcopacy. 117 
 
 and George and Roszell next moved "that the General 
 Conference shall be composed of one member for 
 every five members of each Annual Conference." This 
 was a brief and effective substitute for the third and 
 fourth items of the report and was "carried by a large 
 majority." Joshua Soule, to close the mouth of Jesse 
 Lee, next moved to further amend the second item of 
 the report as follows : "Each Annual Conference shall 
 have the power of sending their proportionate number 
 of members to the General Conference either by sen- 
 iority or choice as they shall see best." Lee laughed 
 at this "Yankee trick," though he did not enjoy it ; and 
 on the next day, seconded by William Burke, he for- 
 mally moved the adoption of the whole report as 
 amended. Thus was accomplished what, on the whole, 
 was the greatest and most useful piece of legislation 
 ever enacted by a Methodist General Conference. 
 Thereafter every part of the Church was guaranteed 
 a fair share of influence in controlling and determining 
 all measures of importance, and the whole body of the 
 Church was assured that no temporary gust of passion 
 or excitement would be able to overturn or even shake 
 the foundations which the fathers had laid. The work 
 of 1784 was crowned and completed in a manner which 
 the experience of twenty years had found to be neces- 
 sary. It is easy to see now that any further delay in 
 the premises would certainly have been unwise and 
 might have been fatal. 
 
 The exact action of the Conference In all its details 
 was skillfully gathered up and put together by the 
 editor of the Discipline of 1808. It runs as follows:
 
 ii8 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 Question 2. Who shall compose the General Conference, 
 and what are the regulations and powers belonging to it? 
 
 Ansuier i. The General Conference shall be composed of 
 one member for every five members of each Annual Con- 
 ference, to be appointed either by seniority or choice, at the 
 discretion of such Annual Conference; yet so that such rep- 
 resentatives shall have traveled at least four full calendar 
 years from the time that they arc received on trial by an An- 
 nual Conference and are in full connection at the time of 
 holding the Conference. 
 
 2. The General Conference shall meet on the first day of 
 May, in the year of our Lord 1812, in the city of New York, 
 and thenceforward on the first day of May once in four years, 
 perpetually, in such place or places as shall be fixed on by the 
 General Conference from time to time. But the general su- 
 perintendents, with or by the advice of all the Annual Con- 
 ferences, or, if there be no general superintendent, all the 
 Annual Conferences respectively, shall have power to call a 
 General Conference, if they judge it necessary, at any time. 
 
 3. At all times when the General Conferences meet it shall 
 take two-thirds of the representatives of all the Annual Con- 
 ferences to make a quorum for transacting business. 
 
 4. One of the general superintendents shall preside in the 
 General Conference; but in case no general superintendent be 
 present the General Conference shall choose a president pro 
 tempore. 
 
 5. The General Conference shall have full powers to make 
 rules and regulations for our Church under the following limi- 
 tations and restrictions — viz. : 
 
 (i) The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or 
 change our Articles of Religion, nor establish any new stand- 
 ards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and 
 established standards of doctrine. 
 
 (2) They shall not allow of more than one representative 
 for every five members of the Annual Conference, nor allow 
 of a less number than one for every seven. 
 
 (3) They shall not change or alter any part or rule of our
 
 Elected to the Episcopacy. 119 
 
 government, so as to do away with episcopacy or destroy the 
 plan of our itinerant general superintendency. 
 
 (4) They shall not revoke or change the General Rules of 
 the United Societies. 
 
 (5) They shall not do away the privileges of our minis- 
 ters or preachers of trial by a committee and of an appeal. 
 Neither shall they do away the privileges of our members 
 of trial before the society or by a committee and of an appeal. 
 
 (6) They shall not appropriate the produce of the Book 
 Concern nor of the Chartered Fund to any purpose other 
 than for the benefit of the traveling, supernumerary, super- 
 annuated, and worn-out preachers, their wives, widows, and 
 children. 
 
 Provided, nevertheless, that upon the joint recommenda- 
 tion of all the Annual Conferences, then a majority of two- 
 thirds of the General Conference succeeding shall suffice to 
 alter any of the above restrictions.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 First Quadrennium in the Episcopacy. 
 
 The General Conference of 1808 having come to 
 an end, the two bishops did not linger long in Balti- 
 more or its vicinity, but started at once for the West. 
 Asbury took the route through Maryland, Penn- 
 sylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, with trusty Henry 
 Eoehm as his traveling companion, and preaching as 
 he went. McKendree followed the somewhat directer 
 route across the full length of Virginia and Tennes- 
 see, reaching the neighborhood of Nashville early in 
 July. As the Conference was not to meet till October 
 I, he concluded to make a side trip to Illinois and Mis- 
 souri. Moving forward, therefore, through the south- 
 western part of Kentucky, he crossed the Ohio River 
 on July 19 and entered the wilderness. Five other per- 
 sons accompanied him: J. Ward, T. Lasly, Z. Mad- 
 dox, M. Shelby, and J. White. Xot all of them were 
 ministers. Shelby was a sort of adventurer. He was 
 a younger brother of Gov. Isaac Shelby, of Kentucky, 
 had been a brave soldier in the Revolutionary War, 
 and was ready for any enterprise that held the promise 
 of new excitement. The company carried provisions 
 for four days, enough to last them until they should 
 reach the first settlement. McKendree's own account 
 of the journey is very graphic and will abundantly 
 bear repeating. "Lying out," he says, "was no hard- 
 ship, but the water was extremely bad and the flics 
 intolerable. Some persons had attempted to go through 
 (120)
 
 First Qiiadrennium in the Episcopacy. 121 
 
 the prairies and had turned back and advised us not 
 to try it ; but we resolved to go, trusting in the Lord. 
 On the third day the flies afflicted us sorely, when a 
 kind Providence sent a strong breeze and blew them 
 all away. After twelve hours a shower of rain suc- 
 ceeded and blessed man and beast with water to drink. 
 On Friday a little after dark we got to Brother Scott's, 
 in the settlement. The old people were gone to the 
 camp meeting, about fifteen miles off, but the children 
 received and treated us kindly. On Saturday morn- 
 ing one of the most affecting scenes I ever witnessed 
 occurred. As we drew near to the encampment about 
 thirty of the neighbors fell in with us. We rode two 
 deep, and a number of excellent singers went in front. 
 We were all glad, and as we moved they sang de- 
 lightfully with the spirit and the understanding. As 
 we approached the congregation met us with open 
 arms and welcomed us in the name of the Lord. The 
 Lord was in the midst of us, and it was like sitting In 
 a heavenly place." 
 
 As soon as this meeting closed McKendree and his 
 companions crossed the Mississippi and went to a camp 
 meeting in the Missouri Circuit, where a good begin- 
 ning had been made the preceding year, and thence to 
 a meeting near a French village beyond the Missouri 
 not far from St. Charles. On the return trip the party 
 recrossed the Mississippi at St. Louis, then a strug- 
 gling village, and proceeded first to Goshen and from 
 there to Big Spring, at each of which places they 
 preached for several days with most gratifying re- 
 sults. McKendree was especially pleased to note the 
 fact that the fruit of his labors In the preceding year
 
 122 Life of William McKendrcc. 
 
 was still visible. Leaving Big Spring, they rode forty- 
 five miles, "lodged in the wilderness, and rested in 
 peace." The two following days and nights they spent 
 in the same way. Recrossing the Ohio at the end of 
 the third day, they went straight to successive camp 
 meetings in Southern Kentucky and Middle Tennes- 
 see and took an active part in them. 
 
 The food of AIcKendree and his companions on the 
 larger part of this journey had been only coarse bread 
 and flesh broiled on sticks at the open fires. When he 
 got back to the home of his old friend Gwin, at Foun- 
 tain Head, about September i, he had traveled on horse- 
 back more than 1,500 miles. That was pretty stren- 
 uous work for the first four months of his episcopacy. 
 It is not surprising that he was ''worn down with fa- 
 tigue and exposure" and that for more than two weeks 
 he was too sick to be out of bed. Going at that gait, 
 even the strongest man could not easily hold up. 
 
 By October i, however, McKendree was again on 
 his feet and ready for the Conference at Liberty Hill, 
 in Wilson Cotmty, twelve miles due east of Nashville, 
 the first of the year. Both he and Asbury, who was 
 too weak to stay in one of the camp meeting tents, 
 were the guests of Col. Green Hill, in whose old home 
 in North Carolina the first Annual Conference of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in America had been held 
 in the fall of 1784. Colonel Hill was a notably good 
 man, prominent both as a citizen and as a local minis- 
 ter, and the ancestor of several generations of worthy 
 people. 
 
 During the whole Conference Asbury was sick and 
 weak and left the presidency largely to McKendree,
 
 First Quadrennium in the Episcopacy. 123 
 
 reserving to himself, however, the stationing of the 
 preachers. This was doubtless a wise distribution of 
 labors, for McKendree from the beginning of his epis- 
 copal career was very able in the chair. It is likely, 
 in fact, that not even Joshua Soule nor Holland N. Mc- 
 Tyeire surpassed him in the easy administration of 
 parliamentary law. 
 
 The question of slavery came up and was discussed 
 with no little feeling. The General Conference of 
 1808 had passed an enactment ''authorizing the An- 
 nual Conferences to form their own regulations rela- 
 tive to buying and selling slaves," and the bishops 
 were now asked to give each a written opinion as to 
 what course ought to be pursued. Bishop Asbury ac- 
 cordingly read a paper, suggesting caution and modera- 
 ation and discouraging legislation on the vexed ques- 
 tion. When he finished, there was an evident indica- 
 tion of dissatisfaction. Indeed, it is said that the 
 audience hissed him. The good old bishop replied, 
 suiting the action to the word: "O well, I can tear it 
 up." Bishop McKendree then read his opinion, which 
 substantially favored the rule so long in existence in 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Conference 
 acted in accordance with his suggestions, though there 
 was a large dissenting minority, which embraced some 
 of the best men in the Conference. 
 
 Apart from slavery, the business of the Conference 
 went smoothly. Nearly a hundred preachers were 
 present from Holston, Natchez, Opelousas, Missouri, 
 Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They were 
 seasoned soldiers, inured to toil and hardship. The 
 most of them had traveled long distances to reach the
 
 124 Life of William McKcndrcc. 
 
 gathering and were worn with fatigue and self- 
 denial. Nearly to a man they were very poor. That 
 was what they had expected when they entered the 
 itinerancy, and it did not cause them to falter. Never 
 was there a band of men better fitted to their surround- 
 ings nor happier in the discharge of their duties. 
 
 The South Carolina Conference was next in order. 
 It was set for December 26 at Liberty Chapel, Greene 
 County, Ga., near the present city of Greensboro. 
 To reach it the two bishops traveled between 1,000 and 
 1,200 miles, the most of the way in a dilapidated thirty- 
 dollar chaise, and the rest of it on horseback. Cross- 
 ing the Cumberland ^Mountains, they went on through 
 Knoxville, up the French Broad River to Asheville, 
 N. C, where Asbury preached in the courthouse, and 
 over the Blue Ridge and the South Fork of the Cataw- 
 ba River to Williamson's camp meeting, which they 
 reached on November 11. Turning thence into South 
 Carolina, they rode through Camden and other places 
 tc Charleston, and from that city to Augusta, Ga., and 
 still farther to the home of John Bush, near the seat 
 of the Conference. The mere recital of the successive 
 steps of such a journey gives no conception of its dif- 
 ficulties. The roads were miserable and the accom- 
 modations usually poor. But the bishops endured all 
 these things uncomplainingly. More than this, they 
 preached scores of times along the route, and, indeed, 
 were gravely distressed whenever a day passed with- 
 out an opportunity to proclaim the gospel. More than 
 once we find them complaining that the preachers and 
 presiding elders through whose charges they had passed 
 had failed to give proper notice of their coming and
 
 First Quadrennium in the Episcopacy. 125 
 
 to gather congregations for them. A httle later than 
 the present time IMcKendree records in his journal 
 that in the course of a single week he had preached to 
 nine little and lonely congregations in the northern part 
 of New York. He did not wait for great crowds, but 
 was ready to break the bread of life to even a handful 
 of hungry souls. Bishop Paine, who had studied his 
 earlier journals very closely, and who often traveled 
 with him in his later years, makes this general remark : 
 "He seems for months to have preached and traveled 
 almost every day when not actually holding Confer- 
 ences. Midwinter and summer were in this respect 
 alike to him. Thus in November, 1810, he had no 
 rest day; in December, two; in January, 181 1, two; 
 in February, none ; in Alarch, two ; in April, none ; 
 in May, none; in June, none ; in July, none ; in August, 
 two; in September, none." 
 
 He had the fixed habit of noting in his journal the 
 texts from which he preached. Simply running over 
 the list of them, one cannot fail to see that he did not 
 fall into ruts, but covered a great variety of subjects 
 from every part of the Holy Scriptures. It has been 
 alleged of some of his successors that their range of 
 topics was narrow. The writer of these lines once 
 asked the late Bishop Fowler, whose humor had an 
 
 acid touch in it : 'Ts it true that Bishop has only 
 
 two sermons?" "Two?" he replied. "Is there really 
 a second one?" Nobody would ever have thought of 
 making such an inquiry about IMcKendree. 
 
 The South Carolina Conference, which, as indicated 
 above, then included also the whole State of Georgia, 
 was full of life, and the travel-worn bishops found
 
 126 Life of William McKendrcc. 
 
 great compensation in the fellowship of the passing 
 days. Between sixty and seventy itinerant preachers 
 were present, *'all of one spirit." A great many local 
 preachers and laymen had also come up to the feast of 
 tabernacles, the first ever held in that vicinity. Some 
 of them had traveled one hundred and fifty miles and 
 brought their tents with them. While the business 
 sessions were going on in the rude church, there was 
 incessant preaching, praying, and singing under the 
 arbor, and not a little shouting also. The Georgia 
 Methodists started out as a lively folk, and, God be 
 thanked, they have not yet entirely lost the capacity to 
 praise him with a loud voice. 
 
 The reports showed that there had been a net gain 
 during the year of 3,088 members. Asbury fairly 
 glowed as he wrote: "The prospects for doing good 
 are glorious." Among the sixteen fine young men ad- 
 mitted on trial was William Capers, who was to leave 
 a luminous track through the next half century as one 
 of the wise and mighty leaders of the Church. 
 
 Three "missionaries" were included in the list of 
 appointments. One of them was Matthew P. Sturde- 
 vant, who was sent to the Tombigbee country in Ala- 
 bama, the first regular itinerant to enter that State, 
 though Lorenzo Dow had been there as a sort of in- 
 dependent ranger sometime before. The other two 
 were J. H. Mallard and J. E. Glenn, who w^ere com- 
 missioned to the negroes on the Savannah and Santee 
 Rivers. Even prior to this time there had been a great 
 deal of preaching to the colored people, not only in the 
 towns and cities, but also when occasion oflFered in the 
 country ; but now an organized and sustained effort
 
 First Quadrenmiun in the Episcopacy. 127 
 
 was set on foot to reach the poorest and the lowhest 
 of them on the cotton and rice plantations. In this 
 monumental enterprise, which finally brought more 
 than a quarter of a million souls from the darkness of 
 paganism to the light of Christ, the South Carolina 
 Conference had the high honor of leading the way, 
 and for the next fifty years maintained its primacy, 
 giving up many of its best and ablest men to the work 
 and spending in the aggregate nearly or quite a million 
 dollars. It is surely the very irony of history that the 
 only body of Christians that showed any deep and 
 practical regard for the welfare of the slaves and that 
 gathered more converts from them into the fold than 
 could then be found in all the mission stations of all 
 the world should later have been held up to the scorn 
 and derision of Christendom because of its "con- 
 nection with slavery," and this, too, by men and 
 Churches who viewed the whole situation from a safe 
 and easy distance and never risked their personal in- 
 terests to improve it. 
 
 Bishop McTyeire pauses here with great grace in 
 his "History of Methodism" to throw another side 
 light on the course of events. This same James E. 
 Glenn, self-sacrificing missionary on the Santee, was 
 also destined to touch at a later day the man who was 
 perhaps, all things considered, the greatest preacher 
 that American Methodism has yet produced. Young 
 Stephen Olin, fresh from his college course at Mid- 
 dlebury, Vt., full of all sorts of abilities, but without 
 definite religious convictions of any sort, came down 
 to South Carolina, hoping in that softer climate to 
 recover his broken health, but not dreaming of the 
 9
 
 128 Life of JVilliam McKcndrec. 
 
 career that lay out before him. In the good provi- 
 dence of God, wliich often accomplishes the greatest 
 ends by strange means, he became an inmate in Mr. 
 Glenn's home, and chiefly through the influence of 
 that godly man was led to Christ. The rest of the 
 story is "writ large" in the history of the Church and 
 does not need to be set down here. 
 
 "A glance at the men and their distribution will 
 show that the Conference holding the extreme south- 
 ern position in 1808 was strong and laying a founda- 
 tion for the future. There were giant leaders among 
 them. Young Lovick Pierce, already marked out for 
 eminence as a preacher and a legislator, kingliest of 
 the kingly, only less great than his son, Bishop George 
 F. Pierce, was presiding elder of the Oconee District; 
 Britain Capel, of the Ogechee; Lewis Myers, of the 
 Saluda ; Daniel Asbury, of the Catawba ; and Jonathan 
 Jackson, of the Camden. James Jenkins, Plilliard 
 Judge, Samuel Dunwoody, William Gassoway, Wil- 
 liam M. Kennedy, James Russell, and Joseph Tarpley 
 were among the other laborers cultivating this portion 
 of the vineyard." 
 
 Taking the back track immediately after the Con- 
 ference had risen, the two bishops again visited Au- 
 gusta, Ga., Camden, S. C, and Wilmington, Newbern, 
 and Washington, in North Carolina, conducting re- 
 ligious services at all these and many other intermedi- 
 ate points, and finally coming to Tarboro, N. C, the 
 appointed seat of the Virginia Conference, on January 
 31. Eighty- four preachers were present, and seven- 
 teen recruits were admitted Into the ranks. To 
 Asbury's great joy, only three preachers in the whole
 
 First Quadrennimn in the Episcopacy. 129 
 
 Conference were married men. If he had been asked 
 whether the New Testament insisted on a cehbate min- 
 istry, he would, of course, have given a negative reply ; 
 but he undoubtedly thought that in the conditions 
 then prevailing throughout the country a single life 
 sorted well with the duties of the itinerancy, and it 
 would have pleased him if all his brethren had been 
 confirmed bachelors. His journal contains a delight- 
 ful morsel ad rem: "The high taste of these Southern 
 folks will not permit their families to be degraded by 
 an alliance with a Methodist preacher, and thus invol- 
 untary celibacy is imposed upon us. All the better. 
 Anxiety about worldly possessions does not stop our 
 course, and we are saved from the pollutions of negro 
 slavery and oppression." Very consolatory reflections ! 
 Jesse Lee admitted that he once thought himself called 
 to the married state, but that the woman concerned 
 could not see it that way. Since that day the average 
 Methodist preacher in the South has not usually found 
 his way to matrimony blocked. Indeed, his success in 
 wife-winning has come to be a sort of standing marvel. 
 
 The two bishops did "teamwork" at this Confer- 
 ence, as usual. McKendree preached an ordination 
 sermon on Friday and ordained eight elders, while 
 Asbury on Sunday discoursed on "Humiliation before 
 God" and laid hands on thirteen deacons. He esti- 
 mated the audiences "in the two churches" at 2,000 
 souls. But most persons are likely to overestimate the 
 size of a crowd. Even level-headed John Wesley did 
 it in his day. It is not likely that there were two 
 churches in Tarboro holding each a thousand persons. 
 
 The hospitality of the town was great. Thus the
 
 130 Life of William McKcndrcc. 
 
 good old Bishop says : "Our friends are very attentive 
 to entertain us in their homes abundantly better than 
 we deserve." As this writer can testify from personal 
 experience, those Eastern North Carolinians have not 
 }et forgotten how to exercise the grace of courteous 
 entertainment. It has descended from father to son in 
 an unbroken line. 
 
 Nothing could be more significant than the next 
 quotation from the journal. Dr. Stevens in his bril- 
 liant history of the Methodist Episcopal Church al- 
 most wails over it as an indication of a lapse from 
 perfect righteousness on Bishop Asbury's part; but 
 really and truly it is nothing more than a sign that 
 the Bishop in the face of stubborn facts was learning 
 a great lesson of common sense. Here it is: 
 
 Our increase in numbers, unless wc allow for a great waste 
 by death and loss by removals, is not very encouraging. The 
 West and South have given us more than three thousand 
 each, whereas here it is not three hundred. We are de- 
 frauded of great numbers by the pains that are taken to keep 
 the blacks from us. Their masters are afraid of the influence 
 of our principles. Would not an aincUoration in the condition 
 and treatment of the slaves have produced more practical 
 good to the poor Africans than any attempt at their cmunci- 
 pationf The state of society unhappily does not admit of 
 this ; besides, the blacks arc deprived of the means of in- 
 struction. Who will take the pains to lead them into tlie way 
 of salvation and watch over them, that they may not stray but 
 the Methodists? Well, now their masters will not let them 
 come to hear us. What is the personal liberty of the Afri- 
 can, which he may abuse, to the salvation of his soul? 
 
 From Tarboro Bishop McKendrec journeyed north- 
 eastward through a deep snow, calling for a day at
 
 First Quadrennium in the Episcopacy. 131 
 
 his father's house, in Greenville County, Va., and 
 preaching twice while there. Thence he continued his 
 ride through Petersburg and Richmond to Port Re- 
 public and on to Harrisonburg, Va., reaching the last- 
 mentioned place about Alarch i. On the most of this 
 long journey Asbury was with him, as his journal con- 
 clusively shows. Conference opened at Harrisonburg 
 on March 2 and lasted till March 8. 
 
 By a blunder which it is difficult to understand in 
 so careful and accurate a man Bishop Paine says that 
 this was a sort of second session of the Virginia Con- 
 ference held for the convenience of the Virginia 
 preachers who were too remote to get to Tarboro. 
 But, as a matter of fact, it was the Baltimore Confer- 
 ence, and could have been none other; for Harrison- 
 burg was then, and always has been, In the bounds of 
 the Baltimore Conference. Furthermore, if this were 
 not the Baltimore Conference, then no session of that 
 body was held for that year, an impossible supposition. 
 The General IMInutes, moreover, confirm the view that 
 I have taken. Bishop Palne's mistake probably grew 
 out of the fact that Bishop IMcKendree In his jour- 
 nal by a curious slip wrote "'Virginia" Instead of 
 ''Baltimore" and afterwards failed to notice and cor- 
 rect It. 
 
 Both Asbury and ]\IcKendree were well acquainted 
 among the Baltimore brethren and greatly enjoyed the 
 renewal of old companionships. To the former, In 
 particular, getting back into that region was like get- 
 ting home. He was headed for It when death overtook 
 him, In 1816. The regular business of the Conference 
 did not differ much from that of the Conferences which
 
 132 Life of IVilliam McKendrce, 
 
 had just before been held. Ten yonng men were re- 
 ceived on trial and ten others into full connection. 
 Among those received on trial was Beverly W'augh, 
 later to become an honored general superintendent of 
 the whole Church, one of those balanced and capable 
 men who, without shining abilities in any direction, 
 are yet useful on all the ground. The statistical re- 
 ports were even less encouraging than those at the 
 \'irginia Conference. They actually showed a de- 
 crease of 1,726 in the membership and must have 
 given rise to grave questionings. Then, as now, the 
 Church seemed to go forward, not along the whole 
 line, but by divisions and sections. But there was 
 abounding life in the old Baltimore Conference, as the 
 coming years would show. 
 
 The next stage of their journey took the bishops 
 through another deep snow to Alexandria, George- 
 town, and Washington City, preaching, of course, as 
 they went. Thence they pursued their way to Balti- 
 more and Wilmington, Del., and finally to Phila- 
 delphia, where the Conference convened April 3-10. 
 McKendree seemed to mend his grip on the road. At 
 this Conference he preached six times. Fortunately 
 for him, Asbury did the most of the cabinet work and 
 left him comparatively free to exercise his great gifts 
 as an evangelist, which were more and more admired 
 in every part of the country. Father Francis does not 
 seem to have got along so well here as elsewhere. 
 "There was some little difficulty," his narrative run?, 
 "with the money concerns, and some of the members 
 had been rather warm partisans as politicians. This 
 is always wrong, let them take which side they please.
 
 First Quadrenniiim in the Episcopacy. 133 
 
 . . . The Philadelphia Conference has subjected 
 itself to a demand for twelve preachers who have no 
 stations. Six are married, and there is a widow's 
 maintenance to be added, an expense all told of $2,000. 
 1 am not conscious of indulging or feeling wrong tem- 
 pers in the mighty work at which I labor, but I never 
 wish to meet the Conference in the city of Philadel- 
 phia again." Even Asbury had his juniper tree moods. 
 There was really no reason for despondency. The 
 gain in membership for the year had been over one 
 thousand, and fifteen preachers were received on trial 
 and fourteen into full connection. The outlook v/as 
 good all around the horizon. 
 
 The New York Conference was next in order, and 
 so the bishops renewed their itinerary by way of Bur- 
 lington, Trenton, and other towns, reaching New York 
 City on Alay 9 and opening the first session three days 
 later. McKendree again magnified the' pulpit, though 
 he occupied it only four times in the course of the Con- 
 ference. Asbury was still suffering from some men- 
 tal depression: "If I have slept five hours a night, it 
 is as much as I have done in the matter of sleep." 
 There were "some critical cases" among the preachers, 
 though none were deemed deserving of expulsion. 
 One thing pleased the bishops : "There were one hun- 
 dred and fifteen preachers stationed and few com- 
 plaints." Another cheering fact was a gain of over 
 four thousand In the membership and a considerable 
 accession to the ranks of the ministry. Both the 
 bishops were much impressed by their first sight of a 
 steamboat — "a great Invention." 
 
 In order to get to Monmouth, In IMaine, at which
 
 134 ^^/^ of William McKcndrce. 
 
 place the New England Conference was to assemble, 
 it was necessary for the bishops to ride about seven 
 hundred miles on horseback, and it took them twenty- 
 one days to do it, not counting the Sundays, on which, 
 of course, they laid by. It was the old story with them 
 — always on the go and always ''holding forth the 
 word of life" as they went. Asbury had often been 
 in New England before; but McKendree had now 
 come thither for the first time, and his eyes were wide 
 open to everything that passed before him. He and 
 Asbury traveled to Boston by different routes, spread- 
 ing themselves thus over the country. It had been ar- 
 ranged that from Boston they should journey in com- 
 pany, but It did not turn out so. The journal reads 
 thus : 
 
 Monday, June 5. — I set out from Waltham this morning 
 with the pleasant expectation of meeting Bishop Asbury in 
 Boston, fourteen miles distant, from which place, according 
 to our general plan, I was to have the pleasure of his com- 
 pany to Monmouth, about one hundred and fifty miles. We 
 met, but what was my disappointment when, before I was 
 seated, the old gentleman in a very pleasant mood presented 
 me with a new plan which directed us to different routes ! 
 Accordingly, after a few hours, we parted. I followed direc- 
 tions and moved on as I could, and in a day or two he came 
 after me on the same road the greater part of the way. 
 
 Evidently the senior bishop was becoming a little 
 notioned, and evidently also the junior did not quite 
 relish being dealt with as if he were something of a 
 novice. Well, the saints are human, even the best of 
 them, and that is what brings them close to us. 
 
 On June to McKendree again makes a record: 
 **I have passed through nearly all the seaport towns in
 
 First Qiiadrennmm in the Episcopacy, 135 
 
 my course and preached in Boston, Lynn, and Ports- 
 mouth this week. There is a beautiful prospect of re- 
 Hgion in Portsmouth, the seat of government for New 
 Hampshire. I heard more doctrinal sentiments and 
 more breathing after holiness expressed in a love feast 
 here than in any other place I have visited lately." 
 Possibly McKendree did not know that "doctrinal 
 sentiments" are the New Englander's vital breath and 
 native air. 
 
 Of the Conference, McKendree says: "It com- 
 menced on the 15th and closed on the evening of the 
 fourth day. This is an amiable body of preachers, 
 having many difficulties to encounter and much love 
 to support them." Asbury's note is fuller and more 
 specific: *'On June 18, Sunday, I preached to about 
 three thousand deeply attentive people from Isaiah 
 xliv. 23. We have eighty-two men to do the work, 
 forty of whom compose the Conference, the rest being 
 supplies. . . . We have ordained twenty-one 
 deacons and seven elders. We have located eleven 
 elders, readmitted one, and added seventeen preachers 
 on trial. There is a small increase here and fair pros- 
 pects for the future." Another sentence from the 
 Bishop sounds an unusual note : "I have to lament my 
 want of information respecting both the circuits and 
 the preachers." Tlie connection has grown so wide 
 that he can no longer have accurate personal knowl- 
 edge of it. This fact ought to have suggested to him 
 the propriety of some alteration in his plan of making 
 the appointments, but it did not do so. Men of sixty- 
 five do not easily take to new ways. 
 
 The Conference ended, the bishops mounted their
 
 136 Life of IVWium McKendrce. 
 
 horses once more and turned their faces toward the 
 west, passing through Northern New York, Pennsyl- 
 vania, and Ohio to Cincinnati, already becoming the 
 queen city of the West, and now for the first time to 
 entertain a Methodist Conference. To follow these 
 two devoted servants of God in this long and tiresome 
 route would be a pleasant task, but we should get 
 no strictly new information by doing so. They rode 
 hard over rough roads, crossed rivers, lakes, and 
 mountains, endured all sorts of beds and all sorts of 
 food, preached at every stopping place, wrought 
 mightily in several camp meetings, and got to Cincin- 
 nati on September 27, in good time for the Western 
 Conference, which opened on the 30th. 
 
 For the next three years, moreover, they kept closely 
 to the same general schedule thus described. Every 
 year they made the circuit of the whole Church, a dis- 
 tance of about six thousand miles, and met all the An- 
 nual Conferences with unvarying punctuality. 
 
 Asbury's age and infirmities were beginning to tell 
 upon him. ^^lore and more he left a large share of the 
 work to ]^IcKendree, whom he had learned to trust im- 
 plicitly and who never refused to carry any load that 
 was put upon him. Before the quadrennium was fin- 
 ished, the junior bishop had completely mastered all the 
 details of his office — indeed, he knew the most of them 
 to begin with — and had learned to meet its duties with 
 the easy skill of a veteran. Without being a martinet, 
 he adhered strictly to parliamentary procedure. The 
 Conferences soon discovered that he would not tolerate 
 any looseness or disorder and quietly submitted to his 
 strong guidance. Even the New York Conference,
 
 First Qnadrennium in the Episcopacy. 137 
 
 which was given to interminable discussion and some- 
 times held on for a full ten days, learned how to get 
 through in about half that time. This does not mean 
 that McKendree was autocratic or discourteous in the 
 chair. Far from it. As a matter of fact, he was a 
 perfect model of gentlemanliness. But he understood 
 the art of presiding, and he practiced it. Every matter 
 received due consideration at his hands, and every man 
 was accorded a fair hearing. The result, as might have 
 been expected, was highly satisfactory except to the 
 few brethren who could no longer enjoy a monopoly of 
 the Conference floor, and even they were bound to see 
 in time that a deliberate assembly without a fixed 
 method of transacting its affairs is a virtual impossi- 
 bility. 
 
 In spite of the great respect which the two bishops 
 had for each other, they could not always agree even 
 on important matters. From the beginning Asbury 
 had been in the habit of making the appointments, as 
 Wesley did, on his own judgment and without consult- 
 ing anybody. That he had the legal right to do this is 
 indisputable, and indeed few persons, if any, were in- 
 clined to dispute it. But ^McKendree saw very clearly 
 that, with the rapid enlargement of the connection, it 
 would become impossible for any bishop to acquire 
 sufficient knowledge of the men and the Churches to 
 make proper adjustments between them without direct 
 counsel and advice from the presiding elders. Asbury 
 sought to change his mind on the subject, but in vain. 
 In a letter of October 8, 181 1, McKendree courteously 
 but firmly declined to yield. And so the cabinet be- 
 came one of the fixed features of Episcopal Methodism.
 
 138 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 No General Conference created it, nor has it ever had 
 any statutory recognition in the Church. ^IcKendree 
 thought that he needed it and introduced it. Its per- 
 manency has grown out of its usefulness. By common 
 consent it remains to this day.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 At His First General Conference as a Bishop. 
 
 The General Conference which met in Old John 
 Street Church, New York City, May i, 1812, marked 
 the beginning of a new era in the history of Meth- 
 odism. As set out in a former chapter, all previous 
 General Conferences had been simply mass conven- 
 tions of the traveling ministers and had acted, more- 
 over, without restrictions of any sort upon their au- 
 thority. But this one was made up of ninety chosen 
 delegates from the eight Annual Conferences into 
 which the Church was then divided and was limited in 
 its powers by the six restrictive rules, which were de- 
 signed to have the force of a written constitution. But 
 it remained to be seen how far the delegates would 
 be true to the letter and spirit of these rules or would 
 proceed to legislate as if they did not exist. 
 
 Very naturally the Church was deeply concerned 
 as to the result. But the character of the delegates 
 was reassuring. "Among the ninety," says Bishop 
 McTyeIre, "we gladly recognize such veterans as Gar- 
 rettson, Cooper, Lee, Ware, Bruce, Reed, and Snethen, 
 and a fair proportion of that second generation of 
 men whose names are Methodist history — Soule, Hed- 
 ding. Bangs, Pickering, Sale, Blackman, Sargent, and 
 Roszell — ^but special interest gathers about a group of 
 picked young men who came for the first time to the 
 front: Lovick Pierce, John Early, Thomas L. Doug- 
 lass, James E. Glenn, Samuel Dunwoody, Enoch 
 
 (139)
 
 140 Life of IVilliam McKcndrce, 
 
 George, and Robert R. Roberts. These men, it was 
 believed, would not deal lightly with constitutional re- 
 straints. 
 
 There was much comfort also in the fact that two 
 such trained and capable leaders as Asbury and Mc- 
 Kendree were to preside over the dehberations of the 
 Conference. Though wholly alike in their devotion to 
 Christ and his Church, they differed much in mental 
 structure and characteristics. It need scarcely be 
 said that in sheer power of intellect IMcKendree was 
 decidedly the stronger man. He had a habit of look- 
 ing at things in their principles and of forecasting the 
 probable results of measures and policies. From the 
 beginning Asbury had been more or less addicted to 
 personal government. Under the circumstances it was 
 almost necessarily so. When he reached America there 
 was no Methodist Church, but only a few weak and 
 scattered societies. Out of these societies he had seen 
 the Church grow. He had been always in the lead and 
 had been compelled to shape his plans without the il- 
 lumination of precedent or the guidance of definite 
 statutes. He held much the same relation to his fel- 
 low Methodists in this country which Mr. Wesley had 
 to those in England. Simply because of this fact 
 everybody had become used to accepting his decisions 
 as final. The natural reaction helped to confirm in him 
 a sense of authority, though, owing to the intrinsic 
 qualities of his character, it never made him rude nor 
 arrogant. His paternalism was genial and kindly. 
 
 ^fcKcndree was wise enough to know that the 
 Cliurch would never consent to invest another man 
 with Asbury's preeminence. Nor did he covet it for
 
 At His First General Conference as a Bishop. 141 
 
 himself. Of deliberate choice, he sought to make his 
 administration one of law. In all his official conduct 
 he kept in view the requirements of the constitution 
 and of the statutes framed under it. The loose way 
 in which the Annual Conferences had been allowed to 
 carry on business did not please him. It involved the 
 unnecessary consumption of time and bred confusion 
 and ill will. As far as he could effect it, he meant 
 that everything should now be done decently and in 
 order. 
 
 Up till and including 1808 the bishops had been in 
 every sense of the word members of the General Con- 
 ference with identically the same right to introduce 
 motions or resolutions, to debate questions, and to vote 
 as other members. But by the operation of the con- 
 stitution their powers in the respects mentioned were 
 entirely taken away, though additional guaranties were 
 attached to their general status as officers of the 
 Church with defined functions. They became simply 
 the constitutional presidents or moderators of the Gen- 
 eral Conference, without authority to intervene di- 
 rectly in the proceedings of the body. That position 
 they have held ever since, though masterful men among 
 them, such as Joshua Soule, Robert Paine, George F. 
 Pierce, and Holland N. McTyeire, have not hesitated 
 on grave occasions, law or no law, to take the risk of 
 speaking out their minds from the floor or the plat- 
 form. Usually they have been heard with close and 
 courteous attention because of the great and general 
 respect entertained for their ability and force. But 
 men of smaller caliber would surely be subjected to
 
 142 Life of William McKcndrce. 
 
 severe criticisiii if they should undertake to pursue a 
 similar course. 
 
 In view of the changed relation of the bishops to 
 the General Conference and of other weighty con- 
 siderations, it seemed to AIcKendree that some lawful 
 and recognized method should be adopted by which 
 the bishops should be able in a dignified and orderly 
 manner to communicate to the Conference any impor- 
 tant information in their possession or to make any 
 suggestions that they might deem of value. Other- 
 wise it was clear either that they would be tempted 
 to take an open part in the discussions or else would 
 become mere ornamental dummies without any par- 
 ticipation whatever in matters touching the very life 
 and growth of the Church. Hence he determined to 
 read a written address at the beginning of the session, 
 both giving a full account of his own stewardship for 
 the preceding quadrennium and also furnishing a brief 
 exhibit of what he conceived to be the general state 
 and needs of the Church. But before taking the pro- 
 posed step he was judicious enough to consult a num- 
 ber of the older and wiser delegates, including some 
 who were and some who were not his special friends. 
 If there were to be any dangerous rocks or shoals 
 ahead, he did not propose to run on them. 
 
 Just why he did not also consult Asbury it is not 
 possible to say with certainty. But it is likely that he 
 knew or suspected that Asbury would be opposed to 
 the innovation and concluded that it would be better 
 to follow his own judgment, reen forced as it had been 
 by that of chosen brethren, and then make any neces- 
 sary explanations or apologies afterwards. That he
 
 At His First General Conference as a Bishop. 143 
 
 could have deliberately meditated an act of discourtesy 
 toward his senior colleague is not possible. All the 
 records show that he was uniformly and profoundly 
 deferential to Asbury, never once forgetting what was 
 due to his age and position. 
 
 Compared with the voluminous documents which 
 the bishops now put forth, McKendree's address was 
 very short, and none the worse for that fact. It 
 avoided all irrelevant issues and went straight to the 
 heart of things. Such an example is worthy of imita- 
 tion. Woodrow Wilson has lately taught us afresh the 
 value of concise directness in documents designed to 
 reach and move the minds of men. There is no earthly 
 reason why a General Conference should be taxed to 
 listen for several hours to a mere array of facts and 
 figures with the most of which it is already familiar. 
 
 When McKendree had finished reading and taken 
 his seat, a dramatic incident occurred. Asbury, who 
 had been taken by surprise, but was too much of a 
 gentleman to offer an interruption, now arose and 
 said to him: "I have something to say to you before 
 the Conference." McKendree at once got to his feet, 
 and the two stood face to face. Then Asbury pro- 
 ceeded : "This is a new thing ; I never did business in 
 this way; and why is this new thing introduced?" 
 There was something more than a trace of irritation 
 in the old man's voice. It looked as if there might be 
 some trouble between the superintendents. But Mc- 
 Kendree was equal to the emergency. With consum- 
 mate courtesy he replied : "You are our father ; we 
 are your sons. You never had any need of it. I am 
 only a brother and have need of it." Nothing could 
 10
 
 144 -^'7^ of ^^"'V//c7;;r McKcndrce. 
 
 have been finer. Only an instinctive gentleman could 
 have handled the situation with so much skill. As- 
 bury's feelings were at once soothed. He saw that no 
 unkindness had been intended and sat down promptly 
 with a smile on his face. We have had episcopal ad- 
 dresses ever since and probably shall continue to have 
 them as long as the episcopacy itself lasts. 
 
 After the disposition of ^IcKendree's address by 
 the reference of different parts of it to the proper com- 
 mittees, Asbury made a brief and characteristic speech, 
 and then the Conference settled down to business. 
 First and last, it did a good many things. During the 
 preceding quadrennium the bishops without express 
 authorization had organized the Genesee Conference. 
 The action was doubtless wise, but not warranted, and 
 provoked a good deal of criticism. Asbury had taken 
 the precaution to secure the approval of the Annual 
 Conferences for what he had done, and the General 
 Conference now' lent its sanction. But the bishops 
 have never since taken the responsibility upon them- 
 selves of creating an Annual Conference. That is a 
 matter wholly in the hands of the General Confer- 
 ence. The old Western Conference, which had em- 
 braced the entire ^Mississippi Valley, was now divided 
 into the Ohio and Tennessee Conferences. Asbury 
 thought that the time would come when five would 
 be necessary in the same territory and had their 
 boundaries definitely marked out in mind. If he had 
 lived long enough, he might have seen more than fifty. 
 
 After protracted debate it was resolved to bestow 
 elder's orders upon properly qualified local preachers. 
 Jesse Lee and other men of insight opposed this ac-
 
 At His First General Conference as a Bishop. 145 
 
 tion, chiefly upon the ground that it is not possible for 
 any man to take the vows of the eldership on himself 
 with a good conscience unless he intends to give him- 
 self wholly to the ministry. But as a majority of the 
 itinerant elders, after a few years of traveling, located 
 and took their orders with them, the force and per- 
 tinency of the argument seemed to be broken, espe- 
 cially as in those days the services of worthy local 
 preachers were frequently much needed in the admin- 
 istration of the sacraments. Nevertheless, this legis- 
 lation by turning a class of lay preachers into a sort 
 of halfway cltrgymtn did no little harm. The British 
 Methodists in adhering to the original conception of 
 Wesley have shown greater wisdom. 
 
 James Axley, who never missed a chance to hit 
 whisky or slavery, again moved "that no stationed or 
 local preacher shall retail spirituous or malt liquor 
 without forfeiting his ministerial character among us." 
 That the Conference should have dillydallied with this 
 motion for some time and should finally have voted it 
 down is a piece of history in which no Methodist can 
 glory. In fact, if it were not narrated in full in the 
 Journal, one would be tempted to say that it never 
 happened. Axley was thoroughly disgusted with the 
 whole performance, but not discouraged. He was in 
 the war to the finish, and no defeat in a preliminary 
 skirmish could cause him to lose heart or to cease his 
 efforts against the liquor traffic. 
 
 As a kind of offset to its action the Conference in 
 its pastoral address made the following deliverance: 
 "It is with regret that we have seen the use of ardent 
 spirits, dram-drinking, etc., so common among the
 
 146 Life of Williain McKcndrcc. 
 
 Methodists. We have endeavored to suppress the prac- 
 tice by our example, but it is necessary that we add 
 precept to example ; and we really think it not con- 
 sistent with the character of a Christian to be im- 
 mersed in the practice of distilling or retailing an ar- 
 ticle so destructive to the morals of society, and we 
 do earnestly recommend the Annual Conferences and 
 our people to join with us in making a firm and con- 
 stant stand against an evil which has ruined thousands 
 both in time and in eternity." That sounds well, but 
 was altogether too mild a measure to meet the exi- 
 gency. 
 
 In spite of the fact that the General Conference of 
 1808, before adopting the constitution, had expressly 
 declined to take away from the bishops the authority 
 to appoint the presiding elders and had therefore in- 
 cluded this power in that ''plan of our itinerant gen- 
 eral superintcndency" which is covered and protected 
 by the third restrictive rule, an attempt was now made 
 to pass a statute providing for the election of the 
 presiding elders by the several Annual Conferences. 
 Laban Clark introduced a motion to that effect. 
 Nicholas Snethen offered an amendment "that the 
 bishops shall have power to nominate presiding elders, 
 and if the first nomination is not ratified by a ma- 
 jority of the Annual Conference the bishop shall pro- 
 ceed to nominate till a choice is made ; and in all cases 
 each nomination shall be determined separately by bal- 
 lot without debate." The debate lasted for two days 
 and was very able. Lee, Garrettson, Cooper, Snethen, 
 and Phoebus were among the chief advocates of the 
 change. The delegates from New York, Philadelphia,
 
 At His First General Conference as a Bishop. 147 
 
 and Genesee had been instructed by their Confer- 
 ences to vote for it, and they did so in a body. The 
 Southern and Western delegates were mostly opposed 
 to it. When the vote was taken, the majority against 
 it was only four, uncomfortably narrow. What would 
 have happened if the measure had prevailed? Would 
 McKendree at that time have had the courage and the 
 influence to arrest it as he did in 1820? 
 
 After the discussion and the balloting were over, 
 Asbury, being anxious to allay any unpleasant feelings 
 that had been aroused, had seventeen of the preachers 
 of both parties to dine with him. He probably had 
 the English conviction that some things can be effected 
 at a dinner table better than elsewhere, and, indeed, 
 it is true that eating and drinking together has a 
 natural tendency to soften men's antipathies toward 
 one another. He pleasantly says : "There was vinegar, 
 mustard, and a still greater portion of oil ; but the dis- 
 appointed parties sat down in peace, and we enjoyed 
 our sober meal." It was the last occasion of the sort 
 that he should ever enjoy. Before another General 
 Conference he was in Paradise. 
 
 As Bishop Asbury 's health was uncertain, and as 
 he had been urgently invited to visit England at an 
 early date, the Committee on Episcopacy asked whether 
 it was his intention to accept the invitation, and also 
 inquired whether the bishops would need another col- 
 league to enable them to meet all the demands made 
 upon the episcopacy. Bishop Asbury replied in a writ- 
 ten communication, saying that he had given up all 
 thought of "visiting out of the American Continent" 
 and adding that, whatever may have been his former
 
 148 Life of William McKendree, 
 
 opinion on the subject, he was not in a position to 
 say: "Do this or that." Bishop McKendree, probably 
 out of regard for Bishop Asbury, said nothing at all. 
 The Committee on Episcopacy, therefore, brought in 
 a recommendation that no additional bishops be elected, 
 and this recommendation was accepted by the Confer- 
 ence. Yet it must have been evident to everybody w'ith 
 open eyes that Bishop Asbury was no longer fit for 
 active service. In common justice to him he ought to 
 have been retired ; and in common justice to Bishop 
 McKendree a strong man, not beyond middle life, 
 ought to have been added to the episcopacy. To leave 
 one man, and he almost threescore years old, to carry 
 so vast a load as now rested on his shoulders was 
 neither kind nor wise. There is nothing so valuable 
 as capable human service and nothing more to be de- 
 plored than the thoughtless and reckless way in which 
 it is often squandered. As will be apparent before we 
 are through, McKendree was practically worn out 
 at the end of ten years in his office, though he kept 
 going heroically, but with all the odds against him, 
 more than twice that long. It is easy to admire his 
 courage, but not possible to commend the judgment 
 which led him to squander the immense force that 
 ought to have been conserved for future years.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 In Full Swing. 
 
 The period between 1812 and 1816 was a difficult 
 one for religious work in the United States. For the 
 first three years of it the war with Great Britain was 
 in progress, and that preoccupied the public mind. 
 All the Churches suffered, the Methodist along with 
 the rest. It is a sad story that the statistics tell. The 
 total membership for 1813 was 214,311 and for 1815 
 only 211,365. Yet it must not be inferred that the 
 ministers were either indolent or incapable. They 
 went their customary rounds, kept the churches open, 
 and furnished the people with the word of life. Tak- 
 ing everything into the account, it is somewhat more 
 than likely that they did the best they could. 
 
 The bishops certainly displayed great diligence. As 
 stated in the close of the last chapter, Asbury's health 
 was steadily and rapidly failing, but he dragged him- 
 self forward with a resoluteness of will that was 
 worthy of all admiration. During the first year of the 
 quadrennium he managed to be present at every Con- 
 ference, and even in the following years he was rarely 
 absent. But his inability to preach and to preside as 
 formerly, which became constantly more pronounced, 
 threw increasing burdens on the shoulders of Mc- 
 Kendree, who himself now and then began to show 
 signs of the wear and tear to which he was subjected; 
 but he kept going as if he were made of steel springs. 
 McKendree was a careful traveler, but in 1814 he met 
 
 (149)
 
 150 Life of William McKcndree. 
 
 with an accident while on his way from New York to 
 Ohio that disabled him for several weeks and impaired 
 his vigor for many months. On July 29, as he was 
 riding along the road, his horse "started suddenly and 
 threw him with great violence among the rocks, so that 
 his right hip and side suffered considerable injury. 
 That no bones were broken was wonderful." His 
 journal adds: "I was taken in a wagon on the 30th 
 and carried to my good friend, Thomas Weston's. But 
 the roads were rough, and I suffered much." Five sep- 
 arate attempts were made to draw blood from him, 
 but all without success. The lancet was old and dull 
 and the operator without skill. For several days he 
 was confined to his bed. Wlien he got up, he could not 
 move without crutches. A brave effort to renew his 
 journey showed him that he was utterly unfit for the 
 road. So he returned to Weston's and lay by till his 
 strength was somewhat recovered. Broken and weak 
 as he was, he nevertheless preached to the friends who 
 came in great numbers to see him and also held class 
 meeting. As soon as possible he was again on the 
 wing. 
 
 In spite of the pain and disability which followed the 
 accident, he actually met all his Conferences, except 
 the Ohio, and everywhere was hailed with delight. His 
 preaching continued to be a constant source of won- 
 der and edification. He grew in intellectual energy 
 and in emotional warmth. Before large congregations 
 and small ones alike and in city churches and country 
 chapels he uniformly proclaimed the gospel as an 
 anointed prophet of God. 
 
 Bishop Asbury's journal for 1813, in speaking of the
 
 In Full Swing. 15 1 
 
 New York Conference, says: ''Bishop McKendree 
 preached. It appeared to me as if a ray of divine 
 glory rested on him. His subject was, 'Great peace 
 have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend 
 them.' The appearance, manner, and preaching of 
 Brother McKendree produced a powerful effect upon 
 Joshua Marsden, a British missionary, who had been 
 at our Conference." The penalty which McKendree 
 paid for his eloquence was, of course, to be put for- 
 ward on all occasions without much consideration for 
 his physical condition. 
 
 It also came to be understood that his judgment on 
 all points of ecclesiastical law was unusually clear and 
 sound, and so every brother that had a bothersome 
 question brought it before him for adjudication. The 
 only thing that surpassed the simplicity of his opinions 
 was the brevity of them. At the Virginia Conference 
 he was asked whether a presiding elder can lawfully 
 preside over a committee sitting on the trial of a local 
 preacher, and he replied: "He can and sometimes he 
 ought, but as a usual thing it is better that he should 
 not." On the same occasion, objection having been 
 offered to the ordination of certain local preachers be- 
 cause the Quarterly Conferences recommending them 
 were composed of only a few members, it was moved 
 "that the Conference determine what proportion of the 
 official members of a circuit shall constitute a Quar- 
 terly Conference," and he decided the motion to be 
 out of order "because It would operate against the rule 
 of the General Conference." 
 
 Much has been said In many books of the faithful- 
 ness with which he performed all his public duties. It
 
 152 Life of William McKendree, 
 
 ought also to be said with great emphasis that he was 
 equally careful in regard to all his more private obliga- 
 tions. Whenever he entered any home he took pains 
 to have family prayers and as far as possible to exhort 
 each member of the household. The late Andrew 
 Monroe, who rode with him in the winter of 1819 from 
 Nashville to Washington City, tells that he failed of 
 keeping up this custom at only one place on the route, 
 and that was a public tavern where the opportunity 
 was denied him. Throughout the Church he w'as a 
 welcome guest. Very pathetic is the fact that little 
 children loved to climb on the knees of this homeless 
 and childless old preacher and to put their arms in 
 confidence about his neck. 
 
 From year to year the Conferences warmed to him 
 with an increasing veneration and affection ; and this 
 was true not in one part of the country merely, but 
 in every part. He was loved as much in far-off and 
 chilly New England as in his native A'irginia or his 
 adopted Tennessee. In the winter of 1812 the South 
 Carolina Conference kindly requested him to take one 
 of their number with him as a traveling companion at 
 their expense, and recommended for the place James 
 Norton, who gladly accepted it, and shared the Bishop's 
 journeys for a whole year. This was not the first in- 
 stance of the sort nor the last one. Whatever Chris- 
 tian thoughtfulness could do to lighten the burdens or 
 cheer the path of this devoted servant of the Church 
 was done promptly and gladly. 
 
 Bishop McKendree was deeply moved by the death 
 of Bishop Coke, wdiich took place on the Indian Ocean 
 May 2, 1 814, but news of which did not reach America
 
 In Full Swing. 153 
 
 till some months later. Though Coke had been away 
 from the country for nine years, he was still much es- 
 teemed and honored on this side the water, as indeed 
 he thoroughly deserved to be. His services to world- 
 wide Methodism were too large to be easily or speedily 
 forgotten. To the Methodists of the United States 
 he was an apostle. In spite of certain superficial faults, 
 chief of which was the disposition to reach hasty con- 
 clusions and to act without consulting his brethren, he 
 was a very great man. His versatility was marvelous. 
 Scholar, author, presbyter of the Church of England, 
 effective circuit rider, bishop of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church in America, Secretary and President of 
 the British Wesleyan Conference, and most active, 
 hopeful, and daring of missionary leaders, he magni- 
 fied the grace of God in every sphere. In the con- 
 stellation of Methodist worthies his name will shine 
 with undimmed splendor forever. 
 
 As the years went on many of Bishop McKendree's 
 intimate friends and companions began to drop by the 
 way, and a shadow of increasing loneliness often fell 
 across his heart. His last interviews with Asbury were 
 full of solemn and tender pathos. At Cincinnati in the 
 fall of 181 5 they had long and earnest conversations 
 concerning the future welfare of the Church. A few 
 weeks later, and for the last time, they met at the Ten- 
 nessee Conference, near Nashville. Asbury had made 
 his will, leaving all his little savings to the Church, 
 and was ready to depart and be with the Lord. An 
 entry in his journal shows that he knew he would 
 soon cross over Jordan :
 
 154 -^^/^ of William McKcndrec, 
 
 Sabbath. — I ordained the deacons and preached a sermon 
 in which Dr. Coke was remembered. My eyes fail. I resign 
 the stations to Bishop McKendree. I will take away my feet. 
 
 Nevertheless, he started for the South Carolina Con- 
 ference, ^vhich was to meet in Charleston, and got 
 within thirty miles of that city before his strength gave 
 out. The Conference kept in daily touch with him and 
 interceded at the throne for him. After some days he 
 grew better and set his face toward the north along 
 the same track that he had traveled more than sixty 
 times before, hoping to reach the General Conference, 
 which was to meet in Baltimore the following ]\Iay. 
 On the route he wrote a final letter to Bishop AIcKen- 
 dree, full of interest concerning the missions to the 
 Germans in Pennsylvania and of other enterprises of 
 the Church. To the very last he had a burning zeal 
 for the welfare of souls. The nobility of his character 
 shines through every line of this epistle to his col- 
 league. 
 
 Tenderly nursed by his traveling companion, the in- 
 defatigable John Wesley Bond, and moving along in 
 easy stages, he reached Richmond, \'a., and preached 
 his last sermon there on Sunday, March 24, 1816. He 
 was so weak that friends had to lift him in and out of 
 the church. Being unable to stand, he was seated upon 
 a table especially prepared for that purpose. His text 
 was Romans ix. 28: *'For he will finish the work, and 
 cut it short in righteousness : because a short work will 
 the Lord make upon the earth." "The audience was 
 much affected and crowded around him at the close 
 of tlie service to receive his parting blessing." Seeing 
 his almost exhausted state, many friends would have
 
 In Full Swing. 155 
 
 gladly detained him in that city at least till the weather 
 should grow warmer and the roads better. But his 
 heart was set on Baltimore, and he pushed right along, 
 arriving on Friday, the 28th, at the home of his old 
 friend, George Arnold, about twenty miles south of 
 Fredericksburg, and near many of the bloody battle 
 fields of our Civil War, Spottsylvania County, Va. 
 
 The next morning he was quite unable to go farther, 
 and it speedily became evident to himself and to all his 
 attendants that he had finished his race. Saturday 
 and Sunday he lay dying but conscious. At his re- 
 quest Bond read and expounded the twenty-first chap- 
 ter of Revelation. On Monday morning, "full of con- 
 fidence, full of love," the venerable father in Israel 
 breathed his last. His body was laid away in the 
 family burying ground of Mr. Arnold. Within a few 
 weeks, however, at the urgent request of the General 
 Conference, then In session, it was disinterred and 
 taken to Baltimore, where on the loth of May, after 
 a funeral oration by Bishop McKendree and in the 
 presence of the General Conference and a vast con- 
 course of citizens. It was deposited under the pulpit of 
 the Eutaw Street Church. There it remained till Its 
 final removal In June, 1834, to ]\Iount Olivet Ceme- 
 tery, In which campo santo, surrounded by the dust of 
 many other of Methodism's glorious dead, it sleeps in 
 peace till Jesus comes. 
 
 What a career! The son of an English peasant, 
 without wealth or social advantages or extraordinary 
 Intellectual endowments or the training of the schools, 
 he achieved by sheer moral force results of the most 
 amazing magnitude. His ministry began in his seven-
 
 156 Life of IVilliam McKendrce, 
 
 tecnth and ended in his seventy-first year. For forty- 
 five years he served the Methodists of America, thirty- 
 two years of that time in the episcopacy. It is not 
 known or beheved that he ever once shirked a hardship 
 or evaded a responsibiHty. All there was of him be- 
 longed to Jesus Christ. In the midst of titanic labors 
 that carried him more than sixty times from one end 
 of the republic to the other he never forgot to maintain 
 the closest personal relations with his Lord. He lived 
 and died a holy and humble Christian. His name is 
 one of the great inheritances of ^lethodism. 
 
 When the General Conference of 18 16 met in Balti- 
 more ]\Iay I, one hundred and six out of the one hun- 
 dred and fifteen delegates chosen by the nine Annual 
 Conferences appeared and took their seats. The recent 
 death of Bishop Asbury cast a shadow^ over the body. 
 Bishop iMcKendree was now quite alone in his office 
 and was suffering both from severe pain and from 
 general debility. His address to the Conference was 
 even shorter than usual, but not lacking In point. 
 Among other things he said: "Such is the manifest 
 weakness of the superintendency at present that it 
 cannot fully discharge all the duties connected with 
 this department." Such a suggestion was scarcely 
 needed to make the situation apparent. If the Church 
 was to be kept going as an Episcopal Church, it must 
 have more bishops. Nobody was surprised when the 
 Committee on Episcopacy recommended the election 
 of two new men, and on the 14th Inst. Enoch George, 
 of the Baltimore Conference, and Robert R. Roberts, 
 of the Philadelphia Conference, were chosen. The 
 former received fifty-seven and the latter fifty-five out
 
 In Full Swing. 157 
 
 of one hundred and six votes. Both were worthy men, 
 though neither could be matched with McKendree. 
 Roberts was born in Maryland in 1778, but was chiefly 
 brought up in Western Pennsylvania. Converted at 
 fourteen and licensed to exhort at twenty, he entered 
 the Baltimore Conference in 1802, and had therefore 
 been an itinerant only fourteen years when he was 
 made a bishop. Until 1808 he traveled large circuits. 
 But his preaching at the General Conference of that 
 year made so great an impression that he was sta- 
 tioned in Baltimore. After the expiration of his term 
 in that city, he was removed to Philadelphia. His 
 next appointment was to the Schuylkill District, from 
 which post he was raised to the episcopacy. His char- 
 acter was sound and stanch. He had a genuine Chris- 
 tian experience and preached with much power. His 
 great size interfered somewhat with the discharge of 
 his duties. He weighed two hundred and twenty 
 pounds. No horse could easily carry him on a long 
 journey, and as a result he was often late in reaching 
 the Conferences. His sympathies were very acute, and 
 he sometimes allowed them to sway his Judgment. 
 That was the weak spot in his administration. His 
 modesty was almost morbid. Bishop Paine says : "His 
 whole person indicated him to be one of nature's noble- 
 men. His features were large, benignant, and Intel- 
 lectual. His head was of uncommon size ; his fore- 
 head was high and massive ; his eyes blue or hazel- 
 colored ; his manner of address always easy and grace- 
 ful ; his voice a deep bass, but soft and musical. . . . 
 The art of oratory he never studied, and yet occa- 
 sionally he almost reached the highest standard In that
 
 158 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 noblest of all arts. He practiced the art without know- 
 ing it, for nature and grace made him an orator." 
 
 Bishop George was born in 1768 or 1769 in the 
 northern neck of Mrginia. Like William ]^IcKendree, 
 he was converted under the ministry of John Easter. 
 He was admitted into the Baltimore Conference in 
 1789. After traveling about ten years in Virginia, 
 North Carolina, and Georgia, he located in 1799; but 
 he was readmitted by the Baltimore Conference in 1800 
 and made presiding elder, in which office he continued 
 for eight years. ''He was low of stature, but stoutly 
 built. His features were grave and expressive; his 
 eyes were small and deeply seated beneath a heavy, 
 over-hanging brow." His voice was an instrument 
 of rare power. His distinguishing gifts were in the 
 pulpit. By all tokens he must have been a really won- 
 derful preacher. But his knowledge of constitutional 
 law was quite limited. He was not an uncommon pre- 
 siding officer. His lack of capacity in those respects 
 sorely tried Bishop ^McKendree, who now and then 
 talked to him as plainly as Paul did to Peter. Bishop 
 Paine says : "His very kindness and lov^e of peace led 
 him to make concessions and compromises which might 
 have been very prejudicial to the interests of the 
 Church." But he was deeply loved and much sought 
 after in ever}^ part of the Church. 
 
 The General Conference created two new Confer- 
 ences, one in Missouri and one in Mississippi, of which 
 more by and by. It did also a wise thing in electing 
 Joshua Soule to the book agency. He had no experi- 
 ence in such matters : but he took the Book Concern 
 when it was sorely pressed for ready money, made a
 
 In Full Swing. 159 
 
 loan to meet the emergency, toiled almost night and 
 day at his task, and soon had everything in shipshape. 
 As a sort of side issue he edited for two years — 1818-20 
 — the Methodist Magazine and ran up the subscription 
 list to ten thousand. 
 
 The old question of electing the presiding elders 
 was again up. Samuel Merwin moved that they be 
 chosen by the Annual Conferences on the nomination 
 of the bishops. To this motion Nathan Bangs offered 
 an amendment, which was accepted by the mover, as 
 follows : "And the presiding elder so elected and ap- 
 pointed shall remain in office for four years, unless 
 sooner dismissed by the mutual consent of the bishop 
 and the Conference or unless he be elected to some 
 other office by the General Conference. But no pre- 
 siding elder shall be removed from office during the 
 term of four years without his consent unless the 
 reasons for such removal be stated to him in the pres- 
 ence of the bishop and the Conference, who shall de- 
 cide without debate." The vote being taken on the 
 amended motion, it was lost by forty-two to sixty. 
 McKendree said nothing, but was keenly watchful. 
 
 The matter of slavery also was again pushed to the 
 front as "unfinished business." Since 1808 each An- 
 nual Conference had been authorized to make its own 
 rules on the subject. This arrangement was satis- 
 factory to nobody, least of all to the extreme aboli- 
 tionists, whose consciences clamored for drastic action. 
 After the hearing of a report which expressed little 
 hope for the early extirpation of the evil, the law was 
 changed so as to read: "No slaveholder shall be eligi- 
 ble to any official station in our Church hereafter 
 II
 
 i6o Life of William McKendree. 
 
 where the laws of the State in which he hves will ad- 
 mit of emancipation and permit the liberated slave to 
 enjoy freedom." Though agitation was kept up with- 
 out ceasing, this enactment was kept in force unaltered 
 till 1844. Under it the Southern delegates in that year 
 insisted that Bishop Andrew had broken no rule of 
 the Discipline and challenged a formal trial. The fail- 
 ure to answer this challenge was proof that it could 
 not be answered. 
 
 Among other Items of business transacted was one 
 instructing the bishops to prescribe a course of study 
 for undergraduates in the ministry. The course when 
 it appeared covered only two years and was rather 
 scant. It was due chiefly to the wisdom of John 
 Emory that it was later enlarged and extended to four 
 years. James Axley, grim and resolute, got the floor 
 once more with his resolution prohibiting traveling 
 or local preachers from engaging In the distillation 
 or sale of whisky and other liquors and had the satis- 
 faction of seeing it passed. The journal shows, how- 
 ever, that there were some members of the Conference 
 who still thought It too radical.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Senior Bishop of the Church. 
 
 It is certain that Asbury had expected McKendree 
 to be what Whatcoat was, a sort of assistant bishop. 
 In that expectation he had been, in some measure, dis- 
 appointed. McKendree knew that, strictly speaking, 
 there is no difference of rank in the Methodist Episco- 
 pacy. When it became necessary he did not hesitate 
 to act on his own judgment; but his manner was al- 
 ways courteous, and he at no time forgot the personal 
 priority of Asbury. From now on he was himself to 
 be an elder brother in close official relations with 
 younger and less experienced colleagues and would 
 find it necessary to exercise a form and measure of 
 leadership somewhat different from that which he had 
 before displayed. In taking this new attitude he was 
 not guilty of presumption, but was simply meeting a 
 providential responsibility. 
 
 Being essentially a man of system, one of McKen- 
 dree's first steps with his new colleagues was to sug- 
 gest the devising of a definite plan for the distribution 
 of their work among themselves. He saw that it was 
 neither necessary nor always advisable that all three 
 of them should attend every Annual Conference, and 
 Roberts and George agreed with him. On delibera- 
 tion, therefore, they concluded to make the circuit of 
 the Conferences alternately, changing their fields every 
 year. In due course of time this would bring each one 
 of them into every part of the Church and serve the 
 
 (i6i)
 
 i62 Life of IVilliayn McKendrcc. 
 
 interests of connectionalism. It was also arranged 
 that if by chance any two or more of the bishops should 
 be present at the same Conference, then the one as- 
 signed to it should be its responsible President, and 
 the others should act simply as counselors or advisers. 
 The wise order thus early instituted continues to this 
 day. It prevents any possible friction or clashing of 
 jurisdiction and helps to maintain the actual unity of 
 the episcopacy. Experience has proved, moreover, 
 that it is not always best for a visiting bishop to be too 
 free even in the matter of offering advice. Without a 
 full knowledge of the whole situation he might do 
 more harm than good by putting in his hand. 
 
 The plan having been adopted, it was further agreed 
 to put it in actual operation after the session of the 
 Ohio Conference in the coming September. Bishop 
 AIcKendree then expressed the opinion that as Bishops 
 Roberts and George were just entering upon their re- 
 sponsibilities it would be well for them to accompany 
 him to the New York, New England, and Genesee 
 Conferences, which were soon to meet, so that they 
 might see the state of things, harmonize their views 
 and methods of transacting business, and thus fore- 
 stall the danger of conflicts of administration when 
 they should be apart from one another. Bishop Rob- 
 erts at once acceded to the proposition, but Bishop 
 George had business that called him elsewhere, and, 
 besides, he confessed that "he did not see why it was 
 necessary for three men to go and do one man's work." 
 Accordingly they went their way, and he, for the time, 
 went his. The New York Conference convened in 
 New York City June i, and the New England at Bris-
 
 Senior Bishop of the Church. 163 
 
 tol, R. L, June 22. From the latter place Roberts re- 
 turned to his home in Pennsylvania, his object being to 
 take his wife (he was without children) to the West, 
 where he expected to make his home. At the Gene- 
 see Conference, held at Paris, N. Y., July 23, Bishop 
 George put in an appearance; and he and McKendree 
 traveled thence together to the Ohio Conference, held 
 at Louisville, Ky., September 3. The faithful Roberts, 
 having set his own affairs in order without delay, fell 
 in with them again at this point. 
 
 In making out their first schedule, which they now 
 proceeded to do, a slight difficulty arose. The hardest 
 assignments were the two new Conferences which the 
 General Conference had ordered to be organized in 
 Missouri and Mississippi. With characteristic courage 
 and magnanimity McKndree offered to take either 
 one of them and let his junior colleagues say between 
 themselves which should take the other. George, for 
 some reason or other, did not find it convenient to 
 journey to the frontier; and so McKendree went to 
 Missouri and Roberts to Mississippi, which arrange- 
 ment made it necessary for them both to add many 
 hundred miles to their travels. In the meantime 
 George occupied himself, profitably, no doubt, in visit- 
 ing and preaching among his old friends in Georgia. 
 
 The Missouri Conference at its organization included 
 all of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. The first ses- 
 sion met at Shiloh ]\Ieetinghouse, in Illinois, where 
 the city of Belleville now stands. It was most fit that 
 Bishop McKendree should preside. He had visited the 
 field often and knew it thoroughly. No other man 
 could have been so welcome. The Conference was
 
 164 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 divided into two districts, the Missouri and the IlHnois, 
 and twenty-one preachers received appointments. At 
 the head of the former district was Jesse Walker, and 
 of the latter, Samuel II. Thompson. The Missouri 
 District included one circuit in Arkansas, the Hot 
 Springs, with William Stevenson in charge. The total 
 membership reported for the year was three thousand 
 one hundred and seventy-three. Out of such feeble 
 beginnings has grown the giant Methodism of three 
 great States. McKendree's second Conference was the 
 Tennessee, at Franklm, October 20. So he did not 
 have much time to tarry with his brethren in the West. 
 At the Tennessee Conference nothing unusual took 
 place. After a brief visit among his kindred in that 
 quarter, he passed on to the South Carolina Confer- 
 ence, which was to convene at Columbia December 
 26. In the meantime Roberts had accomplished his 
 journey to ^Mississippi. At Columbia ^^IcKendree 
 found George awaiting him. The session was pleasant 
 and profitable. The Bishop's journal notes the follow- 
 ing fact: ''Bishop George continued with me the re- 
 maining Conferences of my work and then entered 
 upon his own course. But instead of relaxing my 
 labors I continued with him to the Conferences in his 
 division of the work, although I had attended them 
 last year with Bishop Roberts." This arrangement 
 took him again up the coast to the far north and 
 brought him to the New England Conference, at Con- 
 cord, N. H., May 16, 1817, and thence to the New 
 York Conference, at Middlebury, Vt., on June 17. 
 "Between the two places," he says, "we traveled 
 through a fall of snow, the weather being so cold that
 
 Senior Bishop of the Church. 165 
 
 some of our company from the South had their faces 
 frostbitten." 
 
 At Middlebury the two bishops parted, and Mc- 
 Kendree returned to Tennessee. Passing by the head 
 of Lake Champlain, he turned aside a Httle way to see 
 the British fleet which Commodore McDonough had 
 captured September 11, 1814, and then moved right 
 on through New York and Philadelphia to the eastern 
 shore of Maryland, from which he crossed the bay to 
 Baltimore. At that place a little Dearborn wagon, 
 which he had bought in Philadelphia with a view of 
 lessening the excessive fatigue of riding, met him. 
 Resting for a few days and then using his new vehicle, 
 he passed through ^laryland and Pennsylvania, crossed 
 the Alleghanies to Wheeling, Va., and so on through 
 Ohio and Kentucky to his brother's home in Sumner 
 County, Tenn. There he met his old traveling com- 
 panion, James Norton, who once more joined him in 
 the same capacity. 
 
 On October 17 they started to the Mississippi Con- 
 ference, which w^as scheduled for Midway, Miss., No- 
 vember 7, 18 17. Of all the Bishop's journeys, few 
 were harder than this. As the roads were not adapted 
 to his w^agon, he sold it and procured a pack horse to 
 carry food for himself and his companions through the 
 Indian nations. At Franklin they were joined by Wil- 
 liam IMcMahon, of great fame in Western Method- 
 ism, and his wife, who were going on a visit to her 
 father, Judge Seth Lewis, in Louisiana. Such company 
 relieved the tedium of the way. In the face of heavy 
 rains, high waters, and some apprehensions from
 
 i66 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 drunken Indians, they got through safely and had a 
 ver)' agreeable time at the Conference. 
 
 The session being ended, the next thing was to get 
 to the South CaroHna Conference, at Augusta, Ga., 
 Januar}' 2y, 1818. To effect that end it was necessar>' 
 for them to cross the two territories of Mississippi and 
 Alabama and the whole State of Georgia. Winter was 
 at hand. The rain came in torrents; all the streams 
 were full; many of them overflowed their banks and 
 covered the low-lying lands for miles. But, with 
 Thomas Grifiin as guide, they did not falter at difficul- 
 ties or dangers. In crossing a deep and rapid creek in 
 Alabama, and again in crossing the Chattahoochee 
 River, they were put in grave peril of their lives. 
 More than once they slept in the open woods. Now 
 and then, without being aware of it, they were close to 
 roving bands of Creek Indians, who were still in a 
 murderous mood. As they were going out of the na- 
 tion they met General Gaines going in and got much 
 information from him. It was with feelings of the 
 deepest relief and gratitude that they reached at last 
 the hospitable home of the Bishop's beloved friend 
 Lucas, at Sparta, Ga. There they gladly remained for 
 nine days. 
 
 The Bishop's journal reads : "Having some spare 
 time before me, I determined to rest and recruit my 
 health." But the people would not let him rest. "They 
 prevailed on me to be contented to rest the horses 
 while they took me to popular meetings on the two 
 following Sabbaths." To fill in the remainder of his 
 leisure he and Lewis Myers then visited Louisville, 
 the old capital of the State, Savannah and Charleston,
 
 Senior Bishop of the Church. 167 
 
 not sparing himself of labor at any point, and got to 
 Augusta the clay before the Conference opened. 
 
 This Conference was included in the assignments of 
 Bishop Roberts; but he did not reach it till the fifth 
 day, his horse having broken down on the route. His 
 presence was greatly needed, as there was some *'deli- 
 cate and eventful business" to manage. But McKen- 
 dree took his place and, of course, handled everything 
 with wisdom and discretion and to the great satisfac- 
 tion of Bishop Roberts, whose spirit was beautiful and 
 brotherly. 
 
 Roberts's next Conference was to be at Norfolk, 
 Va., February 26, and he begged McKendree to ac- 
 company him thither also. "But," says the latter, "as 
 this would add six hundred miles' traveling to my al- 
 ready excessive labors, I was not disposed to do so and 
 therefore took leave of him and set out on my west- 
 ward tour. But, reflecting on his situation — a stranger 
 to the way and the people, his horse with a sore back, 
 and having barely time to get to the Conference, after 
 riding five miles — I determined to return and accom- 
 pany him if he had not gone. I found him, and he was 
 delighted. We started early the next morning for 
 Norfolk. Our time on the trip was diligently im- 
 proved, traveling from thirty to forty-five miles a day. 
 Rain did not stop us. Saturday we had our linen 
 washed; on the Sabbath I preached; and thus we 
 pushed on and got to Norfolk the day before Confer- 
 ence was opened. The back of the Bishop's horse was 
 well, and the preachers and people were glad to see us." 
 
 Unexpectedly, Bishop George was on hand. With- 
 out consulting his colleagues, he had appointed Dr.
 
 1 68 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 Phoebus missionary to Xew Orleans and had brought 
 him and his family that far on the way. But he had 
 made no provision whatever for the Doctor's support, 
 which would be at least one thousand dollars. \>ry 
 characteristically he now asked McKendree to assume 
 the whole responsibility. That was presuming a little 
 too far. The man who had gone hundreds of miles 
 out of his way to accommodate Bishop Roberts drew 
 back and declined to take this new load, though he 
 expressed a willingness to advance a hundred dollars 
 at once and to raise five hundred more if his two 
 colleagues would undertake to get the rest. The result 
 was that Dr. Phoebus, who was in every way fitted for 
 the mission, returned to New York. 
 
 ''The Conference closed with encouraging prospects, 
 and the preachers parted in love." ^IcKendree turned 
 his face toward Tennessee. As far as Lynchburg, two 
 hundred miles away, he had the company of preachers. 
 But from there to Kentucky, not less than three hun- 
 dred miles farther, he traveled alone, leading his pack 
 horse all the way. He reached his brother's home 
 about April i. Pausing only a few days, he ''resumed 
 his plan of visiting the Churches on the Western 
 frontier." This side trip, a sort of work of superero- 
 gation, took him through Indiana, Illinois, and ]\Iis- 
 souri, where he visited a great many Churches, attend- 
 ed three camp meetings, and labored with all the ac- 
 tivity of a young man. Returning, he crossed the Ohio 
 River at Louisville and spent several months of in- 
 cessant toil in Kentucky and Ohio, preaching at thirty 
 or forty different places and getting to the Ohio Con- 
 ference, at Steubenville, on August 7, 1818.
 
 Senior Bishop of the Church. 169 
 
 His own comment on the year's labors deserves to 
 be inserted here: 
 
 From Middlebury, Vt., June 13, 1817, to this place I 
 have traveled over a very large tract of country. My rides 
 have been excessively hard. My ministerial services in Con- 
 ferences, camp meetings, and quarterly meetings, added to 
 visiting the Churches throughout the districts and circuits, 
 have been abundant, and I am now feeling the effects in a 
 manner heretofore unknown to me, and instead of relaxation 
 my work is rather more vigorous. Here, according to our 
 division, my course begins and terminates at the Mississippi 
 Conference. 
 
 No wonder he was beginning to feel the effects of 
 such toils. The real wonder is that he had not entirely 
 succumbed to them. From that time till the day of his 
 death he was never really a well man. On his way to 
 the Mississippi Conference, a few weeks later, he was 
 overcome by what he describes as "a sudden shock" 
 (possibly apoplectic) and escaped falling from his 
 horse only by easing himself out of the saddle. In the 
 course of two weeks two other shocks followed. Nev- 
 ertheless, he forced himself to go through with the 
 Conference proceedings. Let him narrate the facts : 
 
 On the first day of the session, October 29, 1818, I presided, 
 but was exceedingly debilitated, owing mainly to my attack 
 and partly to the error I committed in having blood taken and 
 using an emetic. The second day the little Conference of ten 
 members met in my room. I was in the bed, but the President 
 pro tern, sat near my bedside, and the business of the Confer- 
 ence was done properly. It was a camp meeting Conference, 
 and on the Sabbath there was preaching on the camp ground. 
 I was taken in a carriage to the camp ground and lay on a 
 bed near the stand during preaching, having been assisted to 
 the place and supported by two preachers while performing
 
 170 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 the ordination. Monday morning the preachers met, received 
 their appointments, and took an affectionate leave of each 
 other — except John Lane, Thomas Griffin, and Benjamin 
 Edge, who waited a few days to see the progress of my 
 complaint. 
 
 A few days decided his situation. He could not 
 move. Until the ist of Februar)- he continued to be 
 the gtiest of the Fords. He says : 
 
 Every mark of attention was shown me, insomuch that I 
 was humbled under a sense of obligation to the whole family. 
 Sister Ford was a mother indeed to me, and her daughters 
 were nursing sisters. A colored lad voluntarily took to nurs- 
 ing me. He would lie by my bed at night and wake up at the 
 slightest noise, and was in every way the most attentive boy 
 I ever saw. Brother Edge had been sent to a circuit, but left 
 it to attend me. 
 
 About the middle of February he ventured to move 
 by easy stages to Colonel Richardson's, near Natchez, 
 by whom, and especially by Dr. Winans and Judge 
 IMcGehee, he was most comfortably entertained for 
 several weeks. In March, not wisely perhaps, he ven- 
 tured to accompany Dr. Winans on a visit to the infant 
 Church in Xew Orleans, and then returned to his asy- 
 lum in the country. Being advised by his physician 
 that he ought to leave that region before the coming 
 of summer, he accordingly, about April 15, started 
 back to Tennessee. That princely layman, Edward 
 McGehee, gave him a light Jersey wagon for the trip 
 and stocked it with all sorts of provisions. John Lane 
 and Benjamin Edge accompanied him. They were ten 
 days in passing through the Indian countr}'. Hotels 
 along the way there were none, and "stands" were 
 few and far between. Eight nights they slept in the
 
 Senior Bishop of the Church, 171 
 
 woods. Notwithstanding all this, McKendree's health 
 steadily improved, and he reached his brother's home 
 in safety. 
 
 After resting among his own folks for a few weeks, 
 he went with William MacMahon and wife to the 
 Harrodsburg Springs, in Kentucky, and derived bene- 
 fit from drinking the waters. Assisted from place to 
 place and pausing to visit old friends as he went, he 
 got to Cincinnati in time for the Ohio Conference, 
 August 17, 1819. Having greatly enjoyed the fellow- 
 ship of the brethren, he slowly wended his way back 
 once more to his brother's, in Tennessee, and there 
 spent the most of the winter. That was more like home 
 to him than any other place on earth. 
 
 This particular period of McKendree's life was not 
 without its compensations. It brought him great 
 searchings of heart. His own account of it is most 
 interesting and, as throwing a light on his religious 
 experience, deserves to be reproduced here : 
 
 During this affliction I was brought to examine my life in 
 relation to eternity closer than I had done when in the enjoy- 
 ment of health. The spiritual and temporal business of the 
 Church has become so complicated, spread out over so vast 
 a territory, and involves so many responsible and delicate 
 official acts that I have been almost constantly mentally em- 
 ployed and frequently greatly perplexed and distressed in its 
 management. In this examination, relative to the discharge 
 of my duties toward my fellow creatures as a man, a Christian 
 minister, and an officer of the Church, I stood approved by my 
 own conscience; but in relation to my Redeemer and Saviour 
 the result was different. My returns of gratitude and loving 
 obedience bear no proportion to my obligations for redeeming, 
 preserving, and supporting me through the vicissitudes of life 
 from infancy to old age. The coldness of my love to him "who
 
 1/2 Life of William McKcndrcc. 
 
 first loved me" and has done so much for me overwhelmed 
 and confused me ; and to complete my unworthy character I 
 had not only neglected to improve the grace given to the extent 
 of my privilege and duty, but for want of that improvement 
 had, while abounding in perplexing care and labor, declined 
 from first love and zeal. I was confounded, humbled myself, 
 implored mercy, and renewed my covenant to strive and devote 
 myself unreservedly to the Lord. 
 
 During the latter part of Februar}', 1820, in com- 
 pany with Andrew ^lonroe, who has left a wonderfully 
 readable narrative of the journey, he made the trip 
 across the Cumberland ^Mountains, through East Ten- 
 nessee, and thence on to Alexandria, \'a., where, quite 
 unexpectedly to the body, he dropped in on the Balti- 
 more Conference and got such a reception as must 
 have warmed his heart for many a day. 
 
 So closed the twelfth year of his general superin- 
 tendency. Though somewhat broken in health, he 
 was at high tide in the esteem and affection of the 
 whole Church. With the exception of Asbur)% no oth- 
 er man had ever been so esteemed in the connection. 
 Nor has any man ever succeeded him who held the 
 Church more closely in the hollow of his hand.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Defending the Constitution. 
 
 The ratio of representation having been reduced, 
 the General Conference of 1820 was smaller than 
 either of the two preceding ones, being composed of 
 only eighty-nine delegates from eleven Annual Con- 
 ferences. The three bishops were present. McKen- 
 dree took the chair and, according to his custom, pre- 
 sented a written address. Roberts and George made 
 oral addresses. The plan of having the bishops to 
 write one address representing them all had not yet 
 been adopted. From beginning to end the session was 
 full of interest and often of excitement. Many im- 
 portant measures were debated and adopted. All In 
 all, It was a memorable Conference. 
 
 After the failure of Cokesbury College, In 1795, the 
 Church for a long time took no further steps In the 
 matter of education. Recently, however, there had 
 been sporadic Indications of a fresh awakening on 
 the subject, and the General Conference, following the 
 signs of the times, recommended that district schools 
 and colleges, under the care of the Annual Confer- 
 ences, be established in every part of the Church and 
 authorized the bishops to appoint traveling ministers 
 as presidents, principals, and teachers for these insti- 
 tutions without reference to the time limit. During the 
 next four years Augusta College, under the joint pat- 
 ronage of the Kentucky and Ohio Conferences, was 
 founded, and many others of like grade followed. 
 
 (173)
 
 174 Life of IVilliam McKcndree. 
 
 Some of them were not well placed nor wisely managed 
 and soon failed, but the most of them survive in vigor- 
 ous life till this day. Tlie contribution which they have 
 made to the intellectual and religious growth of the 
 country' is almost beyond estimate. 
 
 Growing out of an effort to give systematic assist- 
 ance to Rev. Mark Moore, who was struggling man- 
 fully to get a foothold for the Church in Xew Orleans, 
 a General Missionar}^ Society had been organized in 
 New York in April, 1819, by Joshua Soule, Freeborn 
 Garrettson, Nathan Bangs, Laban Clark, and others. 
 Its achievements had not yet been great. For the first 
 year it collected only $823.64. But it opened the eyes 
 of the Church to a great need and was now taken 
 over by the General Conference and made connectional 
 in its scope. 
 
 For a long time there had been misunderstandings 
 between the preachers of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church in Canada and the missionaries sent out to 
 that country by the British Wesleyan Missionary Soci- 
 ety, and in 1816 the Society had addressed a long let- 
 ter to the General Conference urging an amicable 
 settlement. But the Conference, after hearing from 
 the Canadian delegates. Black and Bennett, declared: 
 *'We cannot consistently with our duty to the soci- 
 eties of our charge in Canada give up any part of 
 them, or any of our chapels in those provinces, to the 
 superintendence of the British connection." That was 
 taking an extreme position and an indefensible one. 
 
 As the troubles grew it was now determined to send 
 a delegate to England for the purpose of securing a 
 complete and brotherly adjustment, and John Emory,
 
 Defending the Constitutioft. 175 
 
 young but wise, was chosen for the mission. Before 
 he started the bishops gave him a letter of instructions, 
 in which they said, among other things: "We are of 
 opinion that the most effectual means to prevent col- 
 lision in the future will be to establish a specific line 
 by which our field of labors shall be bounded on the 
 one side and the British missionaries on the other." 
 Acting on this principle, Emory fully achieved the end 
 for which he was sent. It was agreed that the British 
 Methodists should have the exclusive occupancy of 
 Lower Canada and the Americans of Upper Canada. 
 This compact, honorable to all concerned, was fully 
 and faithfully executed. O ! if in 1844 ^^^ after- 
 wards ! The Committee on Episcopacy, noting the 
 great weakness of Bishop McKendree, brought in an 
 early report, recommending that he be released from 
 all work except such as he himself might feel free to 
 undertake, and also that ample provision should be 
 made for any extra expenses connected with his illness 
 and infirmity. The Bishop was profoundly moved by 
 this display of generosity and carried the memory of 
 it through all the coming years. 
 
 On May 9th the committee further reported that "it 
 is expedient that one additional General Superintend- 
 ent be elected and ordained at the General Confer- 
 ence." This report was promptly adopted, as the for- 
 mer one had been. On Saturday morning, May 13, 
 after singing and prayer led by Freeborn Garrettson, 
 the roll was called to see whether any delegates were 
 absent. S. G. Roszell and D. Ostrander were appoint- 
 ed to collect and count the ballots, and the election 
 proceeded. The count showed that Joshua Soule had 
 
 12
 
 176 Life of JVilliam McKendrcc. 
 
 forty-eight votes and Nathan Bangs thirty-eight. Only 
 three votes were scattering. Looked at in the Hght of 
 subsequent events, it is clear that Soule had received 
 the undivided support of the strict Constitutionalists, 
 and Bangs that of those who leaned to a lax construc- 
 tion of the Restrictive Rules. The lines were closely 
 drawn, as they continued to be till the end of the 
 Conference. But if there was anything like logrolling 
 or political manipulation, no trace of it is left in the 
 record. In the midst of intense feeling men stood by 
 their convictions — that was all. ]\Iy reason for being 
 so full at this point is that McKendree played a large, 
 not to say a determining, part in the proceedings that 
 now followed. If any other reason were necessary, it 
 could be found in the intrinsic importance of what 
 took place. 
 
 Dr. Horace M. Du Bose, the only worthy biographer 
 of Soule, has given so admirable an account of that 
 great and noble man that it would be superfluous to 
 deal with him extensively in this volume. This much, 
 however, may be properly said of him at any time : 
 that he was, with the exception of ^IcKendree, far and 
 away the most commanding figure of his generation 
 in American Methodism. And a little more of a bio- 
 graphical character must also be added in common 
 justice. Descended from George Soule, who came 
 over in the ^Mayflower, a New Englandcr of New Eng- 
 enders both in his blood and in his training, a Cal- 
 vinist by long inheritance, he became a convert to 
 Methodism in his sixteenth year and an itinerant 
 preacher in his eighteenth. Without more than the 
 rudiments of an education to begin with, he became a
 
 Defending the Constitution. 177 
 
 wide and diligent reader and gathered large stores of 
 knowledge from many fields. Before he was twenty- 
 five he had been appointed presiding elder of a district 
 that covered the State of Maine. Even at that time he 
 was a recognized leader of men. When he appeared 
 in the General Conference of 1808 he was only twenty- 
 eight; but, in spite of his youth, he was one of the 
 committee designated to frame the Constitution of the 
 Church, and, as a matter of fact, he became, more than 
 any other man, the real author of that notable instru- 
 ment. His services as Book Agent from 18 16 to 1820 
 revealed him as a business man of great capacity. In 
 the emergency which I shall presently describe he 
 acted with consummate courage and candor. When 
 again the tides were out and running high, in 1844, he 
 stood like a breakwater. The singular steadiness and 
 consistency of his whole career entitles him to be called 
 Joshua the Majestic. He lived till 1867, having mag- 
 nified his episcopal office for forty-three eventful years, 
 and then passed away in serene and unshaken hope of 
 a better life. 
 
 Before Soule could be ordained — that is to say, on 
 Tuesday, IMay 16 — Timothy Merritt and Beverly 
 Waugh called up a resolution which they had pre- 
 viously introduced, providing for the election of the 
 presiding elders by the Annual Conferences. The 
 same old straw was to have another threshing, and a 
 most vigorous one. A debate of great ability followed. 
 It lasted for two whole days. Twenty-one speakers 
 took part in it. Few converts, if any, were made by 
 either side. After some parliamentary fencing by Eze- 
 kiel Cooper, it was finally moved by William Capers
 
 178 Life of William McKcndrcc. 
 
 and Nathan Bangs that a special committee of six, 
 three from each side, should be appointed to confer 
 with the bishops and see whether something could not 
 be devised that would be satisfactory to all parties. 
 The motion prevailed. 
 
 The committee was composed of Ezekiel Cooper, 
 John Emory, Nathan Bangs, Samuel G. Roszell, Joshua 
 Wells, and William Capers. They met the bishops, 
 but accomplished nothing by the interview, for the 
 bishops themselves were divided. McKendree stood 
 squarely against the innovation as involving an in- 
 fraction of the Constitution. Roberts seemed to agree 
 with him, but was not quite ready to assert himself. 
 George, who had in him elements both of weakness 
 and of stubbornness, would say nothing, though he 
 knew perfectly well what he was going to do. This 
 interview took place on the late afternoon or evening 
 of Tuesday, ]\Iay i8th. The committee adjourned to 
 meet again early on the morning of the 19th. Roszell 
 Wells, Bangs, and Capers kept the engagement, but 
 Emory and Cooper, for some reason or other, failed 
 to appear, and as a result of their absence no action 
 was then taken. WHien the Conference adjourned at 
 noon, however. Bishop George requested the commit- 
 tee to meet him in the gallery of the church and re- 
 vealed the fact that he was in favor of what he called 
 certain "accommodating" resolutions. Roszell was in 
 no very good humor and interrogated the bishop quite 
 narrowly. But after a free talk the three Constitution- 
 alists, Capers, Wells, and Roszell, consented in a mo- 
 ment of weakness and as a peace measure to report the
 
 Defending the Constitution. 179 
 
 following resolutions, embodying substantially Bishop 
 George's own views : 
 
 Resolved, That, whenever in any Annual Conference there 
 shall be a vacancy or vacancies in the office of presiding elder, 
 in consequence of his period of service of four years having 
 expired, or the bishop wishing to remove any presiding elder, 
 or by death, resignation, or otherwise, the bishop or president 
 of the Conference, having ascertained the number wanted 
 from any of these causes, shall nominate three times the num- 
 ber, out of which the Conference shall elect by ballot, without 
 debate, the number wanted ; provided that when there are more 
 than one wanted not more than three at a time shall be nomi- 
 nated nor more than one at a time shall be elected ; provided, 
 also, that in case of any vacancy or vacancies in the office of 
 presiding elder in the interval of any Annual Conference the 
 bishops shall have authority to fill such vacancy or vacancies 
 until the ensuing Annual Conference. 
 
 Resolved, That the presiding elders be, and they hereby are, 
 made the advisory council of the bishop or bishops or presi- 
 dent of the Conference in stationing the preachers. 
 
 EzEKiEL Cooper, 
 Stephen G. Roszell, 
 N. Bangs, 
 J. Wells, 
 J. Emory, 
 William Capers. 
 
 On the afternoon of the same day, Thursday, the 
 19th, without much further discussion, the report was 
 taken up by the Conference and adopted by sixty-one 
 to twenty-five. Some of the opponents of change had 
 got the notion that the resolutions as slightly amended 
 had been divested of their unconstitutional features ; 
 and, being weary of a strife that had run through long 
 years, they either voted for them or declined to oppose 
 them. The "amiable irresolution" of Roberts and the
 
 i8o Life of William McKendree, 
 
 "judicial weakness" of George contributed to the re- 
 sult. A fuller examination of the resolutions, such as 
 was afterwards made, would have shown at the time 
 that they really contained every objectionable feature 
 embodied in the original paper of Merritt and Waugh 
 and conceded nothing of any worth to the defenders 
 of the Constitution. It is never sound policy to make 
 a real or apparent compromise on a question of prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 But Soule was not deluded for a minute. He 
 grasped the full significance of the action and acted 
 with heroic promptness. In a letter written at once 
 to Bishops George and Roberts — ^IcKendree being a 
 few days absent in the country on account of his health 
 — he declared that the action of the General Confer- 
 ence was unconstitutional because it undertook by a 
 mere majority vote to strip the episcopacy of a power 
 bestowed upon it by organic law, and he added that 
 under such circumstances he "could not consistently 
 with his convictions of propriety and obligation enter 
 upon the work of an itinerant General Superintendent." 
 This language is so ver)^ explicit that it seems strange 
 that anybody should ever have been reckless enough, 
 even in years of passion and prejudice, to call in ques- 
 tion the perfect sincerity of its author. 
 
 McKendree was also prompt to speak out. On 
 Monday morning, ^lay 22, Roberts and George showed 
 him Soule's letter and expressed the opinion that it 
 exhibited an indisposition to submit to the General Con- 
 ference. McKendree thought not, and at his sugges- 
 tion Soule a little later indorsed on the back of it this 
 sentence: "At the special request of Bishop McKen-
 
 Defending the Constitution, i8l 
 
 dree I hereby certify that in the above statement I 
 mean no more than that I cannot, consistently with my 
 views of propriety and responsibihty, administer that 
 part of the government particularly embraced in the 
 act of the General Conference above mentioned." 
 
 Soule was not to stand alone in this emergency, 
 though he would have done so if it had been neces- 
 sary. Fortunately for him, the powerful support of 
 the senior bishop now came to his help. On Monday 
 morning, May 22, McKendree was in his place on 
 the platform. Roberts and George very courteously 
 showed him the letter which they had received from 
 Soule. He had already, through a written commu- 
 nication from Mr. Capers, been put into full posses- 
 sion of all that had gone on in the Conference during 
 his few days of absence and had prepared a ringing 
 protest against the so-called "peace measure." This 
 protest, along with Soule's letter, he now presented to 
 the Conference. In his journal he says that the pro- 
 test contains "an intimation" of his opinions con- 
 cerning "the constitutional difficulty." Intimation is 
 scarcely the term with which to describe his remarks. 
 A straighter or more downright document was never 
 penned. Every word of it shows intense conviction. 
 The importance of it justifies its reproduction in full: 
 
 Baltimore, May 22, 1820. 
 To the Bishops and General Conference, now in session. 
 
 On Saturday evening I received a copy of the resolution 
 which passed on the 19th instant, which, contrary to the estab- 
 lished order of our Church, authorizes the Annual Conference 
 to elect the presiding elders and thereby transfers the execu- 
 tive authority from the General Superintendents to the An- 
 nual Conferences and leaves the bishops divested of their
 
 l82 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 power to oversee the business under the full responsibiHty of 
 General Superintendents. I extremely regret that you have, 
 by this measure, reduced me to the painful necessity of pro- 
 nouncing the resolution unconstitutional and therefore des- 
 titute of the proper authority of the Church. 
 
 While I am firmly bound, by virtue of my office, to see 
 that all the rules are properly enforced, I am equally bound 
 to prevent the imposition of that which is not properly rule. 
 Under the influence of this sentiment and considering the 
 importance of the subject I enter this protest. 
 
 If the delegated Conference has a right in one case to 
 impose rules contrary to the Constitution, which binds hun- 
 dreds of preachers and thousands of members in Christian 
 fellowship, and on which their own existence and the validity 
 of their acts depend, why may not the same right exist in 
 another? Why not in all cases? If the right of infringing 
 the Constitution is admitted, what will secure the rights and 
 privileges of preachers and people, together with the friends 
 of the Church? If the Constitution cannot protect the exec- 
 utive authority, in vain may the moneyed institutions and 
 individual rights call for help from that source. 
 
 Believing as I do that this resolution is unauthorized by 
 the Constitution and therefore not to be regarded as a rule of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, I consider myself under no 
 obligation to enforce or to enjoin it on others to do so. 
 
 I present this as the expression of my attachment to the 
 Constitution and government of the Church and of my sincere 
 desire to preserve the rights and privileges of the whole body. 
 
 Your worn-down and afflicted friend, W. jMcKendree. 
 
 As Soule had been put into the hands of the bishops 
 for ordination, they made ready, though without his 
 knowledge, to proceed with the ceremony. This fact 
 becoming known or suspected, it stirred up a good deal 
 of feeling. At 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 23, a resolution 
 was brought forward by D. Ostrander and James 
 Smith, the object of which was to arrest any present
 
 Defending the ConsMtution. 183 
 
 action on the part of the bishops — if not, indeed, to 
 make it impossible that Soule should be ordained at 
 all. The resolution was as follows : 
 
 Whereas Brother Joshua Soule, bishop elect, has' signified 
 in his letter to the Episcopacy, which letter was read in the 
 open Conference, that if he be ordained bishop he will not 
 feel himself bound to be governed by a certain resolution of 
 this General Conference relative to the nomination and elec- 
 tion of presiding elders ; therefore 
 
 Resolved, That the bishops be earnestly requested by this 
 Conference to defer or postpone the ordination of the said 
 Brother Soule until he gives satisfactory explanations to this 
 Conference. 
 
 This resolution led to considerable discussion. A 
 motion was finally made to postpone it indefinitely; 
 and when it became evident that this motion would pre- 
 vail, the resolution was withdrawn. So the day closed. 
 On Wednesday morning. May 25, at Soule's own re- 
 quest, Bishop George announced that the bishops had 
 postponed the ordination to a future period; but on 
 Thursday morning, without consulting Soule, he an- 
 nounced that it would take place at noon of that day. 
 Soule at once arose and read a communication resign- 
 ing the office to which he had been elected. At the 
 afternoon session S. G. Roszell and S. K. Hodges 
 moved "that Bishop Soule be and is hereby requested 
 to withdraw his resignation and comply with the wishes 
 of his brethren in submitting to ordination" ; and this 
 motion prevailed, forty-nine ayes, the nays not re- 
 corded. But Soule's mind was made up. He once 
 more stated his purpose, and there the matter ended. 
 The Conference, so Bishop McKendree says, took no 
 further vote on the subject.
 
 184 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 On Friday morning, May 27th, William Capers and 
 Joshua Wells moved that "we immediately proceed to 
 elect another General Superintendent." But Nathan 
 Bangs and twenty-nine others, knowing that the Gen- 
 eral Conference would again elect Soule, had already 
 filed a written protest with the bishops against any 
 further elections, saying, what w^as probably true, that 
 any man chosen under the existing circumstances 
 would take up the office under grave disabilities. 
 When the existence of this protest became known, the 
 motion was withdrawn. 
 
 The Conference, on the 26th inst., did a thing which 
 showed a significant reaction. By a majority vote it 
 suspended for four years the operation of the resolu- 
 tions concerning the election of the presiding elders 
 and left matters just where they had been from the 
 beginning — this very much to the satisfaction of Mc- 
 Kendree and Soule. They were both opposed, on 
 every ground, to an elective presiding eldership, for 
 they saw that it would introduce an incessant element 
 of turmoil and confusion into the Annual Conferences. 
 They were likewise opposed to making the elders a 
 legal council, with power to control the appointments ; 
 for they could not help realizing that this change would 
 take authority from the hands of the only men whom 
 the General Conference could hold directly responsible 
 for their administration, and put it into the hands of 
 men responsible only to the Annual Conference, and 
 would thus inevitably break up the unity and connec- 
 tionalism of the Church. The man who does not see 
 all this is blind. 
 
 But neither McKendree nor Soule would have felt
 
 Defending the Con>stitution. 185 
 
 warranted in refusing to submit to the resolutions 
 simply because they were injudicious or unwise. Their 
 attitude was that these resolutions were unconstitu- 
 tional; and they were certainly correct in this conten- 
 tion, for it is as clear as daylight that the appointing 
 power was, and was understood to be, by the ordain- 
 ing General Conference of 1808, an essential feature 
 of that itinerant general superintendency which is pro- 
 tected by the third Restrictive Rule. The Church can 
 take away this power if it should think best, but it can 
 do so only by first altering the Restrictive Rule. Any 
 attempt to do it by a short cut is lawless. If, more- 
 over, the Constitution may be invaded at one point, 
 there is no reason why it should not be disregarded at 
 every point. The only possible protection of the rights 
 and interests of the Church is in a rigid adherence to 
 its terms and provisions. It was because these two 
 great men had a full understanding of the value of 
 things fundamental and organic that they maintained 
 so strong a front against what was really revolutionary 
 in character. To charge them with having been ani- 
 mated by any vulgar desire for personal advantage is 
 to show an utter incapacity for reading their minds. 
 
 McKendree believed that the Annual Conferences, 
 or the body of elders comprised in them, were the only 
 final judges of the constitutionality of any legislation. 
 On mature reflection, therefore, he proceeded during 
 the next four years to lay before these Conferences 
 the question of the constitutionality of the "Suspended 
 Resolutions," and seven of them out of twelve declared 
 them to be violative of the third Restrictive Rule. As 
 showing, however, a spirit of conciliation, they agreed,
 
 1 86 Life of IVilliam McKcndree, 
 
 at McKendree's instance, to vote an amendment to 
 the rule in question, and thus legally open the way 
 for the proposed legislation. If the other five Con- 
 ferences had taken the same course, they would have 
 thus secured their object. But they were unwilling to 
 admit the existing incapacity of the General Confer- 
 ence to do what they wished to be done and refused 
 to take any action whatever, thus in the end, and per- 
 haps providentially, defeating their own purpose. 
 
 It need scarcely be said that these four years were 
 not an easy time to McKendree. His position had 
 aroused a good deal of feeling against him. If he 
 was not assailed so viciously as Soule, it was because 
 his standing in the Church protected him against it. 
 Even as it was, he did not escape criticism. The 
 leaders who had been defeated largely through his 
 agency, good men as they doubtless were, were smart- 
 ing under the fact and getting ready to renew the 
 struggle. He would have been something more or less 
 than human if he had not suffered severely in passing 
 through such an ordeal. An entry in his journal un- 
 covers his heart : 
 
 Until that time I had, so far as I know, the confidence and 
 affection of the preachers generally, but after that I had to 
 feel the effects of an astonishing change. Old friends met me 
 with cool indifference or with retiring, forbidding reserve 
 and sometimes even with rudeness. My best-intended move- 
 ments were misconstrued, sometimes converted into faults or 
 magnified to my disadvantage and to the injury of the cause 
 which we were mutually bound to support. In the furnace 
 of affliction I discovered my own imperfections as well as 
 those of my brethren — saw wherein I might have acted more 
 wisely and prudently in many cases — and that some of our 
 afflictions might have been prevented and the same end ob-
 
 Defending the Constitution. 187 
 
 tained by a course a little different and therefore better be- 
 cause less liable to misrepresentations. 
 
 That is noble. Only a Christian man of the highest 
 type could have written it. 
 
 Notwithstanding his release by the General Confer- 
 ence from the burden of active work, McKendree con- 
 tinued for the first three years of the quadrennium to 
 travel through the Church and as far as he possibly 
 could to assist his colleagues in holding the Confer- 
 ences. No one reading his journal casually would in- 
 fer that he was a confirmed invalid. His sense of duty 
 was such that he could not sit down and hold his hands 
 as long as he was able to perform any labor. Another 
 quotation from his journal is a better disclosure of 
 his character than any comment from the pen of a 
 biographer could possibly be: 
 
 I pursued my course as well as I could until the fall pre- 
 ceding the General Conference of 1824, when, observing the 
 methods adopted by some and thinking that I could not attend 
 Annual Conferences without interfering with their measures, 
 or at least seeming to interfere with the election of delegates 
 to the ensuing General Conference, which I deemed deroga- 
 tory to my station, therefore, notwithstanding the fate of our 
 controversy depended on the representatives to be chosen at 
 the three following Conferences, I committed the cause to 
 God and went no farther than to the Tennessee Conference. 
 
 Here again the intrinsic greatness of his character is 
 disclosed. ^luch concerned as he was about the out- 
 come of the matters that were agitating the mind of 
 the Church, he would not seem to resort to anything 
 that even looked like personal scheming or intrigue 
 to carry his points. 
 
 McKendree went up from Nashville to the General
 
 1 88 Life of IVilliam McKendrce. 
 
 Conference of 1824 in company with young Robert 
 Paine, who had been chosen a delegate as early as the 
 law allowed by the Tennessee Conference. The ac- 
 count of the journey as published in Volume II. of the 
 ''Life of McKendree" is so uncommonly well written 
 and so full of noteworthy incidents that there is a 
 strong temptation to make copious quotations from it, 
 but space forbids. Sufficient to say that they started 
 on March 10 and reached Baltimore on April 28. The 
 Bishop was desperately weak, but able to take the chair 
 and open the session. 
 
 Contrary to a very general expectation, the General 
 Conference turned out to be by a small majority in 
 sympathy with the position of McKendree and Soule. 
 The Baltimore Conference had contributed to this re- 
 sult by dropping John Emory, who favored the Sus- 
 pended Resolutions, from its delegation and putting 
 Soule, who was now by transfer a member of that 
 body, in his place. The following preamble and reso- 
 lution, which were adopted after consideration by a 
 vote of sixty-three to sixty-one, tell the story : 
 
 Whereas a majority of the Annual Conferences have 
 judged the resolutions making presiding elders elective and 
 which were passed and then suspended at the last General 
 Conference unconstitutional ; therefore 
 
 Resolved, That the said resolutions are not of authority 
 and shall not be carried into effect. 
 
 But the Conference was so evenly divided that, to 
 avoid giving needless offense, it was agreed that the 
 resolutions should again be carried over till 1828 as 
 unfinished business. 
 
 The Committee on Episcopacy having reported that
 
 Defending the Constitution. 189 
 
 it was expedient to elect two new bishops, the report 
 was adopted by the Conference, though some (hs- 
 sented; and on May 26 Joshua Soule and Ehjah Red- 
 ding, two of the strongest men in the Church, were 
 chosen. Rarely ever has the voting been closer. On 
 the first ballot there were 128 votes, of which Joshua 
 Soule had 64, William Beauchamp 62, Elijah Red- 
 ding 61, and John Emory 59. On the second ballot 
 Soule had 65, a bare majority, Hedding 64, Beau- 
 champ 62, and Emory 58. Before the next ballot 
 Emory withdrew his name, and Hedding had 66 and 
 Beauchamp 60. 
 
 Of Soule a sufficient sketch has already been given 
 in a preceding chapter. Hedding was a native of 
 Dutchess County, N. Y., born June 7, 1780, and was 
 converted December 27, 1798. Being soon afterwards 
 licensed, first to exhort and then to preach, he was 
 used as a supply on three separate circuits. In 1801 
 he was received on probation into the New York Con- 
 ference. For eight years he traveled immense circuits 
 in Northern New York and New England. It is 
 doubtful whether any Methodist preacher ever had a 
 harder novitiate. But he stood the test nobly. Then 
 for four years he was a presiding elder, in which of- 
 fice he exhibited a balanced sagacity of judgment and 
 an evangelistic zeal that but few of his contemporaries 
 equaled. After that, till his elevation to the episco- 
 pacy, he spent the most of his time in Boston, Nan- 
 tucket, Lynn, Portland, and New London. Four 
 times he was chosen a delegate to the General Confer- 
 ence. His promotion was the result of solid and en- 
 during qualities of character. Electing him bishop was
 
 190 Life of William McKendrce. 
 
 making no experiment. lie was equal to the office 
 from the beginning. The writer of these hnes has 
 often heard the late Bishop H. N. McTyeire, himself 
 a very great bishop, speak in terms of the highest ad- 
 miration of Hedding's services to the Church. The 
 policy that kept him confined for the greater part of 
 his episcopacy to the extreme eastern and northern 
 part of the country was not judicious. If he had 
 ranged more widely, it would have been better for 
 him and for the Connection. 
 
 "William Beauchamp, who came so nearly being 
 chosen, is scarcely known to the Church of the present 
 day even by name. Yet he was unquestionably one of 
 the ablest ministers of his time. Born in Kent County, 
 Del., April 21, 1772, and converted about 1787 in 
 Wood County, Va., whither his father had removed 
 some years before, he began to preach in 1791. Two 
 years later he entered the itinerancy, traveling first as 
 a supply under the presiding elder. Having served 
 large circuits for about six years, he was then stationed 
 in New York, Boston, Provincetown, and Nantucket. 
 In 1801 he located and removed to Mrginia and thence 
 in 181 5 to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he became editor 
 of the Western Christian Monitor and also preached 
 with great acceptability in all the region round about. 
 From that place in 1817 he went still farther West, to 
 Mt. Carmel, 111., and engaged in helping to found a 
 new community. In 1822 he w^as readmitted into the 
 St. Louis Conference, and was in 1823 elected to the 
 next General Conference. His death occurred October 
 7, 1824, in Paoli, Ind. Besides his other work, he pub- 
 lished a valuable volume entitled "Essavs on the Truth
 
 Defending the Constitution. 191 
 
 of Christianity." He was called the "Demosthenes of 
 the West" and would have undoubtedly been advanced 
 to the episcopacy but for the fact that so many of his 
 years were spent in the local ministry. Of John Emory 
 something will be said later on. 
 
 Upper Canada, which had theretofore been divided 
 between the New England and the Genesee Con- 
 ferences, was now by its own request set up as a sep- 
 arate Conference. It is just as well to say here as 
 later that five delegates were in their seats from that 
 Conference at Pittsburg four years later, representing 
 9,678 members and very valuable Church property. It 
 had become entirely evident to them in the meantime 
 that their progress was much hindered by the fact of 
 their connection with a Church lying chiefly within a 
 foreign country, and they made a solemn appeal for 
 a peaceable and brotherly separation. In response to 
 that appeal they were authorized to form themselves 
 into a separate Church, and provision was made for 
 transferring to them their proportional interest in the 
 Book Concern and Chartered Fund. The bishops were 
 further instructed to ordain as bishop for them any 
 one whom they should elect and present. In the fall 
 of 1828 Bishop Hedding held their Conference, as- 
 sisted them in completing their organization, and gave 
 them his final blessing. 
 
 The fine-spun theory put forward to justify this 
 division without justifying later divisions, that the 
 missionaries who went to Canada went as volunteers 
 and therefore had a right to quit at any time, being 
 under a terminable contract or compact with the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, was not at all necessary. 
 13
 
 192 Life of JVilliam McKcndrce, 
 
 That such men as John Emory and even Robert Paine 
 
 sliould have laid the groundwork for it is most sur- 
 prising. The outstanding fact is that the General 
 Conference which withdrew its jurisdiction from 
 Lower Canada in 181 6 withdrew it in the same man- 
 ner from Upper Canada in 1820. 
 
 The violent agitation of any single important ques- 
 tion in Church or State is sure to involve, sooner or 
 later, the agitation of all related questions. Out of the 
 hot discussion concerning an elective presiding elder- 
 ship there arose by a natural process the consideration 
 of the status of local preachers and of lay members. 
 All these matters were handled with great vigor in a 
 paper called Mutual Rights, which was established at 
 Baltimore for the purpose of giving expression to the 
 most radical views. ''In its pages inflammatory articles 
 were published and severe attacks were made upon the 
 economy of the Church. The English system was rep- 
 resented as superior to the American, and it was 
 claimed that the excitement was sweeping over the 
 Church." This claim had some foundation in fact. 
 From 1824 to 1828 the agitation was kept up at fever 
 heat. Nicholas Snethen, who had once been the de- 
 fender of the Church and of Asbury against James 
 O'Kelley, now became the file leader of the radicals. 
 Thomas E. Bond, Sr., M.D., a local preacher of great 
 influence and a writer of tremendous force, took up 
 the cudgels against him. 
 
 What were called ''Union Societies" were also or- 
 ganized in many places, and included all those who de- 
 sired to maintain and propagate the so-called reform. 
 It was perfectly natural that Baltimore City, which
 
 Defending the Constitution. 193 
 
 had heard so much of the tyranny of the bishops and 
 their creatures, the appointed presiding elders, should 
 become the center and stronghold of the dissatisfied ele- 
 ments. In 1827 a convention of representatives from 
 different sections of the country, all of whom were in 
 antagonism to episcopacy and to many other features 
 of the Church polity, met there to take counsel with 
 one another. This convention was in no amiable mood. 
 Before it adjourned it had laid down the platform of 
 principles which virtually meant revolution. There 
 then followed a flood of petitions, memorials, and ap- 
 peals to the next General Conference, which convened 
 at Pittsburg in May, 1828, demanding that the Dis- 
 cipline should be subjected to a thoroughgoing revision 
 on all the points In dispute and threatening secession 
 if the demands were not granted. But a reaction had 
 set in in many quarters, and it was reasonably certain 
 that not only the most extreme demands would not 
 be granted, but that even moderate concessions would 
 now be withheld. Nothing can be more stubborn than 
 an aroused conservatism. 
 
 Bishop McTyeire sums up the whole case most ad- 
 mirably as follows : 
 
 The temper on both sides in the greatly widened contro- 
 versy was unfavorable to concession. The reformers were 
 aggressive and hopeful for several reasons. They believed 
 their cause just; it was favored by the political tendency 
 of the country; an envious element of sectarianism which 
 once existed in other denominations was ever ready to 
 humble Methodism and was forward and loud to encourage 
 disaffection ; but chiefly they miscalculated as to the final 
 adhesion of men who had, at one time or other, expressed 
 views in sympathy with their own. Even Bascom uttered
 
 194 ^^f^ of William McKcndrcc, 
 
 some sentiments in the heyday of his blood which were not 
 in harmony with his maturer life as one of the strongest, 
 steadiest, and most trusted leaders of Episcopal Methodism 
 the Church has ever had. Hedding leaned that way once on 
 the original question, also Bangs and Waugh. Emory criti- 
 cized and antagonized Bishop McKendree and Joshua Soule 
 for the prompt, resolute means they used to save the constitu- 
 tion. Bishop George, in judicial weakness, and Bishop Rob- 
 erts, by amiable irresolution, in the primary movement let the 
 ship drive. But now, when the radical tendencies of these 
 things were seen, the conservatives closed ranks and stood 
 firm. The report of the General Conference of 1828, made 
 by John Emory, was kind, strong, and conclusive and put an 
 end to the hopes of the reformers, who proceeded to the 
 organization of the Methodist Protestant Church. Some who 
 originally favored modifications, so soon as the proposed 
 measures, which lay at the bottom, had been declared uncon- 
 stitutional, declined further agitation. Methodism had been 
 demonstrated a most efficient plan for spreading the gospel. 
 Practically, it had never oppressed them. If any were op- 
 pressed, it was the class who did not complain but were 
 complained against — the itinerant preachers. Thoughtful men 
 must not be counted on to join in a theoretical and destructive 
 reform because every pin and screen in the tabernacle that 
 has sheltered them is not exactly to their notion. Unfortu- 
 nately, a reform which began in principles drifted largely into 
 personalities. "The most ungracious assault," says a writer 
 well informed in the literature of that day, "was that which 
 was made upon Bishop George. Such, generally, is the lot 
 of those who, while favoring partial charges, adhere to the 
 vital principles of an organization. They must either go with 
 the reformers to the point of destruction or be regarded as 
 traitors to their interests." 
 
 The extreme reformers had ^one too far to draw 
 back. On November 2, 1830, they met once more in 
 
 Baltimore, formed a discipline and constitution, and 
 
 5
 
 Defending the Constitution. 195 
 
 organized the Methodist Protestant Church, which has 
 had an honorable history. 
 
 Its ministry and press have never been without strong men, 
 and its membership has been generous. Its pohty is marked 
 by an extreme jealousy of power which is lodged nowhere, 
 but distributed ; and there are guards, balances, and checks. 
 A brake on the wheels of a railroad train is a good thing to 
 keep it from going too fast, but a railroad train constructed 
 on the principle of a brake will not go at all. This honor 
 justly belongs to the Methodist Protestant Church. Its one 
 good, peculiar principle — lay delegation — has in late years 
 been incorporated into the chief Methodist bodies of Europe 
 and America. 
 
 At the General Conference of 1824 Dr. Richard 
 Reece and the Rev. John Hannah appeared as the 
 first formal fraternal delegates from the British Wes- 
 leyan Conference and were most gladly welcomed. 
 The bishops were instructed to nominate some minis- 
 ter to return the visit, but failed to do so because they 
 could not agree on a man. McKendree and Soule 
 nominated William Capers ; Hedding and George in- 
 sisted on Wilbur Fisk. Roberts refused to cast the 
 deciding vote. Capers was at that time the older and 
 better known of the two men. His character was 
 without a flaw. His gifts on the platform, in the pul- 
 pit, and in the social circle were equal to those of any 
 man in the Church. His crowning glory lay in the 
 fact that he had led the way in the establishment and 
 maintenance of missions among the Indians and the 
 negroes. Yet the bare fact that by inheritance and 
 necessity he was a slave holder was held by Hedding 
 and George to be a sufificient bar to his appointment. 
 The General Conference of 1828 took a different view
 
 196 Life of William McKendree, 
 
 of the case and by a vote of seventy-two to sixty-two 
 designated him for the place. The manner in which he 
 discharged the duties of the mission was wholly cred- 
 itable to himself and perfectly satisfactory to the 
 British Conference. Fisk, of course, was worthy of 
 any honor, and the fact that he received sixty-two votes 
 on this occasion showed how high he already stood in 
 the minds of his brethren.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Nearing Port. 
 
 It is not worth while to follow McKendree farther 
 into the minute details of his Hfe. All his great public 
 activities are ended. Nothing more that we could learn 
 about him would essentially alter our estimate of his 
 character. But it is, nevertheless, pleasant to mark 
 the close of his career in a general way and to see 
 with what a high and resolute spirit he kept right on 
 to the end. 
 
 Leaving Pittsburgh on a steamboat immediately after 
 the close of the General Conference of 1828, he went 
 down the Ohio River to Maysville, Ky., and from that 
 place, preaching and praying along his route, he turned 
 south to Tennessee, getting to his brother's home in 
 the early autumn. Everybody, except the few who 
 were very intimate with him, expected him now to 
 cease his labors. He had richly earned the right to 
 rest. The Church exacted nothing further from him 
 and, indeed, preferred that he should enter into his re- 
 treat and make himself easy for the remainder of his 
 pilgrim days. But he was not looking for rest this side 
 the river. In the course of the fall he attended sev- 
 eral camp meetings near Nashville and astonished 
 everybody by the vigor of his utterance. Bishop Paine 
 says: 
 
 At Douglass Camp Meeting there was an immense con- 
 course, and the Bishop preached for me at eleven o'clock to 
 at least six thousand people; and although his voice seemed 
 
 (197)
 
 198 Life of William McKendrec. 
 
 feeble, yet it was so distinct and penetrating, and so perfectly 
 silent was the vast crowd, that after the first five minutes he 
 could be heard by all. 
 
 Before the winter had fairly set in he was off for 
 Georgia, had a perilous ride across Lookout Moun- 
 tain, and preached several times before the Grand 
 Council of the Cherokee Indians, in whose welfare he 
 had always been profoundly concerned and among 
 whom he had "always been kindly received and 
 treated." Farther along the road he passed through 
 Athens, Greensboro, and Lexington, stopping long 
 enotigh for a sermon or sermons at each place. When 
 he got to Eatonton he was desperately sick. The doc- 
 tors, according to the horrible practice of the times, 
 took a pint of blood from him and two hours later an- 
 other pint. The next morning, though feeling quite 
 unable to stand up in the pulpit, he preached an hour. 
 At ^lilledgeville he met and ordained Stephen Olin, 
 then and for several years afterwards a professor in 
 Franklin College, an institution of the State. By the 
 first of the year he was at Savannah to meet the Geor- 
 gia Conference, and, finding that Bishop Roberts, who 
 had been designated to preside, had not arrived, lie 
 undertook to supply the vacancy ; but on the opening 
 day, for the first time in his history, he became con- 
 fused in the chair and occupied it no more, 
 
 From Savannah he moved on to Charleston, Raleigh, 
 Richmond, Norfolk, Washington, Baltimore, Philadel- 
 phia, and New York, finally going back home by the 
 Ohio and Kentucky route. This long sweep took him 
 to six Annual Conferences, at every one of which his 
 presence was a recognized benediction.
 
 N earing Port, 199 
 
 The early winter of 1829-30 he spent in and about 
 Nashville, much of it in the homes of his long-time 
 friends, Joseph T. Elliston and H. R. W. Hill. But 
 about January 20, taking young A. L. P. Green, after- 
 wards famous as Dr. Green, for a traveling companion, 
 he made an episcopal visitation to the far South, travel- 
 ing for the most part on the steamboat Nashville. At 
 Natchez he greatly enjoyed the fellowship of Dr. Henry 
 Tooley, William Winans, Benjamin M. Drake, and 
 others. The greater part of the time was spent in 
 New Orleans, where the Church needed his influence 
 and counsel. But he also visited Bayou Sara and 
 Woodville, in which latter place he was the honored 
 guest of Edward McGeehee. This was no pleasure 
 jaunt, but a tour of close inspection and of active 
 service. When he could he preached, and when he 
 could not preach he made pastoral visits more vigor- 
 ously than many a young itinerant on his first circuit. 
 He did not get back to Nashville till April. In the late 
 summer of 1830, much against the counsel of friends, 
 he ventured on one more circuit of the Conferences 
 and went as far east as to the Holston at Ebenezer, 
 Greene County, Tenn., but was compelled to turn back 
 from that point, more dead than alive, and to recross 
 the Cumberland Mountains in midwinter. At last, 
 convinced that he must no longer strain himself, he 
 consented to be nursed during the rest of the winter. 
 
 When the spring of 183 1 was fairly open, being- 
 recuperated by his temporary retirement, he went forth 
 through Kentucky and Ohio, passing the mountains 
 in the fall and staying most of the winter in the home 
 of Dr. Henry Wilkins, in Baltimore. In the latter part
 
 20O Life of William McKendree, 
 
 of March, 1832, he journeyed from Baltimore to 
 Philadelphia to be received with open arms by the lov- 
 ing household of Dr. Thomas Sargent. For the first 
 time the General Conference, on May i of that year, 
 gathered in the Quaker City. Two hundred and 
 twenty-three delegates from twenty-three Annual Con- 
 ferences were present. All the bishops signed the 
 Episcopal Address. ^IcKendree was greatly pleased 
 with it, for it revealed the fact that the Church, for 
 so many years rent and torn by unbrotherly strifes, 
 was again at peace and growing with unexampled 
 rapidity. Bishop George had died on August 27^, 1828, 
 and ^IcKendree was invited to preach a funeral ser- 
 mon and to preside at the ordination of the bishops 
 elect, wdilch he did in an appropriate and impressive 
 manner on May 25. 
 
 The two new bishops were James O. Andrew and 
 John Emory, the former receiving 140 and the latter 
 135 votes out of a total of 222^. Andrew was born in 
 Georgia, the son of John Andrew, who was the first 
 native Georgian to enter the Itinerant ministry. The 
 family came originally from New England, and the 
 Bishop showed in many ways the Puritan strain In his 
 blood. Born in 1794 and converted while a mere 
 youth, he was admitted Into the South Carolina Con- 
 ference In 181 2, having come up from young Lovick 
 Pierce's district. His education was exceedingly 
 limited. ''He had never seen the world nor been a 
 day's journey from home." But he had two good 
 qualities to his credit, strong common sense and In- 
 tense piety. Starting on the Saltkahachie Circuit, he 
 soon showed the metal that was In him. His growth
 
 Nearing Port. 201 
 
 was steady. After a few years he was sent in suc- 
 cession to Charleston, Wilmington, Columbia, and 
 Augusta. By instinct and choice he was a pastor. In 
 his prime he was a preacher of surpassing eloquence. 
 On the platform, especially when advocating the cause 
 of missions, he was without a peer. His social gifts 
 were of the highest order. A simple-minded, warm- 
 hearted, thoroughly consecrated minister of the gos- 
 pel, it was nothing less than a tragedy that he should 
 later have become a storm center in the Church and 
 should have been traduced and slandered beyond meas- 
 ure. The eulogy pronounced upon him in 1844 by 
 Stephen Olin is more than an offset to all the ill things 
 ever said against him. He survived till 1871 and 
 died as he had lived, a stainless and holy man. 
 
 John Emory was born in Queen Anne County, Md-, 
 in 1789, of wealthy and influential parents. He re- 
 ceived a classical education and was admitted to the 
 bar. But in his twenty-first year he turned his back 
 upon the honors of the world and joined the Balti- 
 more Conference, much to his father's chagrin. Bishop 
 McTyeire calls him "a polished shaft." Almost from 
 the beginning he was eminent and influential in the 
 Church. As city pastor, Book Agent, Secretary of the 
 General Conference, and delegate to the British Con- 
 ference he had displayed ability and tact. As early as 
 1824, though he was then but thirty-five years of age, 
 he lacked only four votes of being made a bishop. As 
 a progressive conservative he did not hesitate to favor 
 change as long as the foundations were undisturbed. 
 McKendree's greeting to him after his election was: 
 "Bishop Emory, John Emory, come to my arms." In
 
 202 Life of William McKendree. 
 
 1835 they both died, one in the fullness of his years 
 and the other in the splendid meridian of his man- 
 hood. How inscrutable are the ways of Providence ! 
 It was believed by all who knew Emory that if he had 
 lived twenty years he would have left his impress 
 upon every feature of Methodism. His end was 
 tragic. Thrown from a carriage as he was driving 
 into Baltimore, he was found unconscious on the road- 
 side and never recovered the power of thought or 
 speech. The whole Church put on the robes of mourn- 
 ing for him. 
 
 Unable to attend the sessions of the General Con- 
 ference regularly, McKendree came and went at his 
 will. Everybody treated him with the profoundest 
 deference. The time of criticism was over. His last 
 visit to the Conference was made the day before ad- 
 journment. Everybody knew that he would never face 
 his brethren in such an assemblage again. Dr. Larra- 
 bee describes the scene very graphically : 
 
 Leaning on his staff, his once tall and manly form now bent 
 with infirmity, his eyes suffused with tears, faltering with 
 emotion, he exclaimed : "Let all things be done without strife 
 or vainglory, and try to keep the unity of the spirit in the 
 bond of peace. My brethren and children, love one another." 
 Then, spreading forth his trembling hands and raising his 
 eyes to heaven, he pronounced in faltering and affectionate 
 accents the apostolic benediction. Slowly and sadly he left 
 the house to return no more. Everybody rose and stood till 
 he had departed. 
 
 The return trip from Philadelphia to Tennessee al- 
 most completely exhausted Bishop McKendree's scanty 
 reserve of physical force ; but rest and kind attentions 
 revived him to such an extent that he was able to move
 
 Nearing Port. 203 
 
 about carefully later in the season, to attend the Ten- 
 nessee Conference, which met in Pulaski on November 
 7, 1833, and, in the absence of Bishop Roberts, to pre- 
 side and make the appointments with the help of 
 Robert Paine and Lewis Garrett, whom he personally 
 designated as his helpers. Twice in December follow- 
 ing he preached in the new McKendree Church, at 
 Nashville, and on the last night of the year conducted 
 a watch-night service at the same place. Having re- 
 newed his journal, he made the following entry: 
 
 It was a solemn time. I felt my spiritual strength re- 
 newed. I returned with Brother Hill and his family, and at 
 four o'clock I arose refreshed. 
 
 Mirahile dictu, the next day at ten o'clock he took 
 passage on the palatial steamer Tennessee for one 
 more — the very last — visit to his friends in Mississippi 
 and Louisiana. His careful habit of keeping his ac- 
 counts he still maintained. Arrived at Natchez, he says : 
 "For my passage I paid $20; to waiters on the boat, 
 $1.75; to porter, 50 cents; for riding in dirty hack, 
 $2.'* He preached twice on the boat, twice at Natchez, 
 and as often as possible at other places. Besides his 
 old friends Tooley and Winans and Drake and Mc- 
 Geehee, he fell in with such young men as Charles K. 
 Marshall and Francis A. Owen. To reach McGeehee's 
 he traveled thirty-five awful miles in a carriage. While 
 there he thought he had a slight stroke of paralysis. 
 Could it have been senile epilepsy? Little human 
 things appear in his journal: 
 
 January 28. — Excellent coffee every morning at six o'clock 
 greatly relieves one of headache.
 
 204 -^'/^ of William McKcndrce, 
 
 Blessings on the memory of the good housewife who 
 furnished it to him ! Nowhere in the world do they 
 make it better than in that low country. But trifles 
 like these apart, the wonder remains that at no time 
 of his life did the Bishop show a deeper or more ra- 
 tional concern for the spread of religion and the sta- 
 bility and growth of the Church. He was still very 
 much alive in the spirit. It was about May I when 
 he got back to Nashville. 
 
 For the rest of the year the chronicle runs thin and 
 narrow. A delightful incident took place in the au- 
 tumn at the Old Salem Camp Ground, in Sumner 
 County. William Burke, his fellow soldier of other 
 times, was present, having come down from Ohio. 
 For three successive days the veterans preached time 
 about. In the intervals they spoke of the old memories 
 and dwelt much on departed friends. It was a feast 
 of love to them both. Tlie Tennessee Conference met 
 November 5 in Lebanon. Thither McKendree went 
 up. His first Conference had been held at Bethlehem, 
 in that same county, and now he was back, in the prov- 
 idence of God, where he had begun. The circuit was 
 complete. 
 
 Words are too poor to describe the welcome which 
 he received from his brethren. They looked on him 
 as one whose conversation was in heaven and whose 
 stay upon the earth must needs be brief. Many an 
 alabaster box was broken and the contents poured 
 over his head. If he had needed material things, they 
 would have been given him. But as he had no lack 
 of these, veneration and love were showered on him. 
 Scarcely hoping that he would be able to do it, the
 
 Nearing Port. 205 
 
 Conference asked him by formal vote to write a his- 
 tory of his Hfe, and he promised to do the best he 
 could. But it was too late. Among all his papers, 
 which were later turned over to Thomas L. Douglass 
 and Joshua Soule, not a line of biography could be 
 found. 
 
 The Conference closed on the 14th, and on the 15th 
 the Bishop reached Nashville, but was too unwell to 
 attend church on the next day. During the week, how- 
 ever, and at the urgent solicitation of many persons 
 who longed to hear him once more, he consented to 
 occupy the pulpit of McKendree Church on November 
 2^. A great audience was present and lingered on the 
 words of his lips. That was his last sermon. 
 
 For about a month he lingered at Nashville, sweet- 
 ening and sanctifying all the homes into which he 
 entered. As the holidays drew nigh, he became anx- 
 ious to be at the home of his brother, thirty miles 
 away. The presentiment of approaching death was 
 on him, and he wished to spend his last days among 
 his very own. A hanging nail on one of his fingers 
 had been torn out and became infected and painful. 
 Yet he finished the journey by Christmas day. Very 
 soon thereafter he took to bed and left it no more 
 till the end came. Loved as he was by the whole 
 household, he was specially idolized by his sister 
 Nancy, who, like himself, had never married and who 
 now devoted herself to his comfort with unwearied 
 fidelity, sitting by his side day and night and tenderly 
 noticing his smallest want. At one time a cloud 
 seemed to come over his mind, but that soon passed 
 away. On March i he said to his nephew, Dudley Mc-
 
 2o6 Life of IVilliam McKcndrce, 
 
 Kendrcc, who leaned over him to receive his communi- 
 cation : **I wish that matter to be perfectly understood 
 that all is well with me whether I live or die. For two 
 months I have not had a cloud to darken my sky. I 
 have had uninterrupted confidence in my Saviour's 
 love." Many gracious words fell from his lips. To 
 one of his friends he said: "Follow me as I have fol- 
 lowed Christ, only closer." On the 5th the struggle 
 ended. With a final smile he entered into rest. He 
 was buried by the side of his father in the adjacent 
 graveyard. Forty years afterwards his remains were 
 taken up and, with those of Joshua S'oule, reinterred 
 in the campus of Vanderbilt University, thus hallow- 
 ing the ground, as the resolutions passed by the Board 
 of Trust said, for all time. 
 
 What more is there to be said? If the foregoing 
 pages have not left the impression that William Mc- 
 Kendree was a great man, a great Christian, a great 
 bishop, then nothing would suffice to do so. The 
 writer of this little volume closes his task by praying 
 that out of his reserves of power God may call and 
 qualify other men as the generations go by to carry 
 on the good succession of such ministers.
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 8M1552H1916 cflDi 
 
 WILLIAM MCKENOREE NASHVILLE 
 
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