ptly sent a
messenger to Indiana, paying him thirty dollars of the Jefferson fund
given him in Virginia to have the church and people there sign a
counter petition, meanwhile circulating one in Illinois among the
Baptists and others; and at the next session of Congress Gen.
Harrison's pro-slavery petitions for the first time encountered the
anti-slavery petitions of the Baptist people and others, and the
senate, before which the matter went at that time, voted to sustain
the anti-slavery petitions and against the repeal of the anti-slavery
clause in the Ordinance of 1787, and for the time the contest ended.

[21]The next anti-slavery contest was in the narrower limits of the
territory of Illinois, and it began with the events which called the
Bethel Baptist Church into existence. When Mr. Lemen received
President Jefferson's message in 1808 to proceed at once to organize
the next church on an anti-slavery basis and make it the center from
which the anti-slavery forces should act to finally make Illinois a
free state, he decided to act on it; but as he knew it would create a
{p.36} division in the churches and association, to disarm criticism
he labored several months to bring them over to the anti-slavery
cause, but finding that impossible he adopted Jefferson's advice and
prepared to open the contest. The first act was on July 8, 1809, in
regular session of the Richland Creek Baptist Church, where the people
had assembled from all quarters to see the opening of the anti-slavery
contest, when Rev. James Lemen, Sr., arose and in a firm but friendly
Christian spirit declared it would be better for both sides to
separate, as the contest for and against slavery must now open and not
close until Illinois should become a state. A division of both the
association and the churches followed, but finally at a great meeting
at the Richland Creek Baptist Church in a peaceful and Christian
manner, as being the better policy for both sides, separation was
adopted by unanimous vote and a number of members withdrew, and on
Dec. 10, 1809, they formed the "Baptist Church at Canteen Creek," (now
Bethel Baptist Church). Their articles of faith were brief. They
simply declared the Bible to be the pillar of their faith, and
proclaimed their good will for the brotherhood of humanity by
declaring their church to be "The Baptist Church of Christ, Friends to
Humanity, denying union and communion with all persons holding the
doctrine of perpetua