ing this Church full in the
face, and threatening her dissolution. She is all life and
nerve in matters of doctrine, and on some points where men
may honestly differ; while sins of a crimson dye are
committed in open day, BY MEMBERS OF THIS CHURCH WITH PERFECT
IMPUNITY."

I appeal to you, Sir, and this audience; did George Thompson ever
utter charges against the American churches more awful than those
contained in the extracts I have read--extracts from speeches made in
the General Assembly of the body from which Mr. Breckinridge is a
delegate? I leave for the present the Presbyterians, and proceed to
notice the state of the

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.

Mr. Breckinridge displayed great regard for the reputation of
this body. He believed they were almost free from the sin of
slaveholding--their discipline was most emphatic in its condemnation
of it, and he defied me to show that any Methodist was engaged in the
infernal practice of slave trading. First, as to the probable extent
of slavery in the church. On this point I shall quote from a solemn
and authenticated document issued by a number of ministers in the
Methodist Episcopal body in New England, entitled:--

"An appeal on the subject of Slavery, addressed to the
members of the New England and New Hampshire conferences of
the Methodist Episcopal Church;" and signed by

SHIPLEY W. WILSON.
ABRAM D. MERRILL.
LA ROY SUNDERLAND.
GEORGE STORRS.
JARED PERKINS.

Boston, Dec. 19th, 1834.

In answer to the question--

"When will slavery cease from our church, if we continue to alter our
rules against it as we have done for some years past?" they observe--

"But we will not dwell on this part of our subject; it is
painful enough to think of; and as members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and as Methodist preachers, we readily
confess we are exceedingly afflicted with a view of it, and
still more with a knowledge of the fact, that the "great
evil" of slavery has been _increasing_, both among the
membership and ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at
a _fearful rate_, for thirty or forty years past. The general
minutes of our Annual Conferences, announce about 80,000