This was the last of the Laymen’s Conventions held before the General Conference at which it was expected that the appeals of the expelled brethren would be heard. In some respects it was the most important of them all. - It reaffirmed the declarations of the preceding Conventions. It also provided that from each district in the Conference laymen should be appointed to cooperate with the ministers in the direction and management of the Bands, maintaining that in the formation of these Bands they were introducing no innovation antagonistic to the Methodist Episcopal Church, but that they were acting in full harmony with its established policy.

     It was this Convention that memorialized the General Conference, to meet the following May, to the effect that the judicial action of the Genesee Conference in the various expulsions which had occurred should be carefully investigated by that body, and also for such an amendment of the judicial law of the Church as should secure to both ministers and laymen the right of trial by an impartial committee. This Memorial was finally signed by more than fifteen hundred of the laymen of the Conference before its presentation to the General Conference.

     The Convention also petitioned the General Conference to the effect that a new chapter should be inserted in the Discipline, such as would exclude from membership all persons guilty of holding, buying or selling, or in any way using a human being as a slave. These and several other actions passed by this Convention had a very important bearing upon the ultimate formation of the Free Methodist Church. Hence it is important to give an account of its proceedings here.

     The following partial report of this third Convention is gleaned from a copy of the Olean Advertiser, which published quite an extended and accurate account of it:
 

Of the M. B. Church, Genesee Conference, held in the Presbyterian Church, 0lean,
Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 1st and 2nd, 1860.

     A Convention of the Laymen of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the Genesee Conference, assembled, pursuant to a call, which we published, at the Presbyterian Church, in this village. The Convention was large, every charge or congregation in the Conference being represented. It was at first intended to hold the Convention In the Methodist Church in this village; but Judge Green, upon the application of a member of the Church, granted an injunction restraining and forbidding the Trustees to open their edifice for this purpose. With a commendable liberality, the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church tendered the use of their house for the holding of the Convention.

     At 10 o’clock, on Wednesday morning, Abner I. Wood, President of the Laymen’s Convention, called the delegates to order, and S. K. J. Chesbrough, Secretary, assumed the duties of his office.

     The Convention opened with prayer by Mr. S. C. Springer, of Gowanda; after which the Secretary, Mr. Chesbrough, read the call of the Convention. He also read a letter from D. W. Tinkham, expressing the strong sympathy of that gentleman with the object of the Convention.

     Mr. Chesbrough presented a lengthy Memorial to the General Conference, upon the subject of the expelled ministers, which was read, and laid upon the table for the present.

     Later the Memorial which was read by Mr. Chesbrough at the opening of the Convention was discussed, and the following finally substituted:

“To the Bishops and Members of the General Conference of the M. B. Church, to be held in Buffalo, N. Y., May 1, 1860.

“REVEREND FATHERS AND BRETHREN:

     “We, the undersigned, members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the bounds of the Genesee Conference, respectfully represent to your Reverend body, that a very unpleasant state of things prevails in the Church throughout this Conference. This difficulty has grown out of the judicial action of the Conference. Many honestly believe this action to have been wrong and oppressive. We, therefore, ask your Reverend body to give to the judicial action of the Genesee Conference, by which six of the ministers, to wit: B. T. Roberts, J. McCreery, J. A. Wells, Wm. Cooley, L. Stiles, Jr., and C. D. Burlingham, have been expelled from the Conference and the Church, a full and careful investigation, trusting you will come to such decision as righteousness demands. We also ask your Reverend body so to amend the judicial law of the Church, as to secure to the ministers and members the right of trial by an impartial committee.”

     A motion was adopted, authorizing the chair to appoint a committee of five, to procure a sufficient number of copies of the Memorial to be printed for circulation in the Conference. W. - J. Coigrove, S. K. J. Chesbrough, S. C. Springer, Rev. J. A. Wells, and Rev. B. T. Roberts, were appointed such committee.

     The following petition to the General Conference was read and adopted:

“To the Bishops and Members of the General Conference of the M. E. Church, to be held in Buffalo, N. Y., May 1st, 1860.

“REVEREND FATHERS AND BRETHREN:

     “Inasmuch as there are now known to be, in the Slave States, many members of the Methodist Episcopal Church who hold their fellow-beings, and even their brethren in Christ, as slaves, contrary to natural justice and the Gospel of Christ; and

     “WHEREAS, We believe the buying, selling, or holding of a human being as property, is a sin against God, and should in no-wise be tolerated in the Church of Christ: therefore,

     “We, the undersigned, members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the --------charge, Genesee Conference, would earnestly petition your Reverend body to place a chapter in the Discipline of the M. E. Church that will exclude all persons from the M. E. Church or her communion, who shall be guilty of holding, buying or selling, or in any way using a human being as a slave.”

     Rev. B. T. Roberts said that his opinions on slavery were not changed. He had always been an anti-slavery man; and the first speech he had ever made was an anti-slavery speech. He was opposed to its being in the Church; it had no more right there than the devil had. He said it had been reported that he had reported that he had received a letter from a Presiding Elder, stating that he had better drop the hobby of Holiness, and take up the Slavery Issue. He had never received any such letter. He also said:

     “The Genesee Conference, in former days, was thoroughly antislavery. It seems, by the returns of the last Conference, that there is a change somewhere. The report on slavery was permitted to get into the hands of the committee; and it seems they were either afraid or ashamed to publish it in their minutes.”

     The Reverend gentleman proceeded at some length, and declared that if the Church would only take hold of the matter in the right way, and in the right spirit, slavery would soon be extirpated from the land. He declared his determination to labor for such a result as long as he should live.

     Rev. J. McCreery, and others, followed in a similar strain, and hoped that the Church would do her duty. [Resolution adopted].

     The following resolution was also adopted:

     “Resolved, That we are highly pleased with the appearance of the Earnest Christian. The articles, thus far, prove it to be just what is needed at this time, when a conforming and superficial Christianity is prevailing everywhere. We hail it with delight among us; and we pledge ourselves to use our exertions to extend its circulation.”

     At the afternoon sitting the following resolution was offered and finally adopted:

     “Resolved, That we reiterate our unfaltering attachment to the M. E. Church, while we protest against, and repudiate its abuses and iniquitous administration, by which we have been aggrieved, and the Church scandalized. Our controversy is in favor of the doctrines and Discipline of the Church, and against temporary mal-administration. And we exhort our brethren everywhere not to secede, or withdraw from the Church, or be persuaded into any other ecclesiastical organization; but to form themselves into Bands, after the example of early Methodism, and remain in the Church until expelled.”
 

     There seems to have been a Committee on Resolutions, and that Committee presented the following report:

 
     “PREAMBLE. God deals with us as individuals. No man or body of men can take the responsibility of our actions. It is a Bible doctrine, very clearly taught, that ‘every one must give account of himself to God.’

     “Ministers cannot take into their hands the keeping of our consciences. The right of private judgment lies at the foundation of the great Protestant Reformation. It forms the basis of all true religion. No person who does not act and think for himself can enjoy either the sanctifying or justifying grace of God. When John Wesley was told that he could not continue in the Church of England, because he could ‘not in principle submit to her determinations,’ he replied, ‘If that were necessary, I could not be a member of any Church under Heaven; for I must still insist upon the right of private judgment. I cannot yield either implicit faith or obedience to any man or number of men under heaven.’

     “This is equally true of every honest man. In our Church, the government is vested exclusively in the ministry; the Bishops appointing the preachers to whatever charges they please, and thus having the power to influence them to a great extent, if not to absolutely control them, by the hope of obtaining preferment, if they are submissive, and the fear of being placed in an obscure position, if they do not carry out the will of their superiors. They are elected by the ministers, and are responsible alone to the men who are thus completely dependent upon them for their position in the Church. The General Conference, possessing all the power to make laws for the Churches, is composed exclusively of ministers, elected by ministers. The Annual Conference, which says, who shall preach and who shall not, is made up of ministers. The Book Agents, wielding a mighty, pecuniary influence, are ministers. The official editors, controlling the public sentiment of the Church, are ministers. The same principle is carried out in the administration upon our circuits and stations. The preacher sent on—it may be, in opposition to the wishes of a large majority of the members —appoints all the leaders, nominates the stewards, and licenses the exhorters. If he wishes to expel a member, he selects the committee, and presides over the trial as judge. He goes out with them, and sees that they make up their verdict as he desires.

     “The only check to this immense clerical power—without a parallel, unless it is in the Church of Rome—consists in the right of the laity to refuse to support those ministers who abuse their trust, and show themselves unworthy of confidence. This only remedy in our power against clerical oppression we have felt bound to apply.

     “The course of those members of the Genesee Conference, known as the ‘Regency party,’ In screening one another when lying under the imputation of gross and flagrant immoralities; and ha expelling from the Conference and the Church devoted ministers of the Gospel, whose only crime consisted in the ability and success with which they taught and enforced the doctrine of Holiness, and the fidelity with which they labored to secure the exclusion of slaveholders from the Church,—this course, so contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, as honest men going to judgment, we felt called upon to discountenance. We dare not give these ministers Godspeed in their bloody work, lest we be partakers in their evil deeds. We accordingly voted, in our Conventions, that we could not sustain these preachers who were putting down the work of God.

     “These efforts of ours to correct great evils have been met by persecutions worthy of the priests of Rome in her darkest days. Men of approved piety of long standing, whose prayers and efforts and money have been freely given to promote the interests of the Church, have been expelled from the communion of their choice for having dared to act according to their convictions; therefore,

     “Resolved, That we heartily indorse the sentiments contained in the Preambles and Resolutions passed at the Albion Conventions (December, 1858, and November, 1859). The position then taken, we this day unhesitatingly affirm, in our estimation, to be right Convinced more than ever, that we need to act as one body in this matter, we hereby pledge ourselves unflinchingly and uncompromisingly to stand by the principles then laid down; and to sustain, by our sympathy and our aid, our brethren in the ministry who have been the subjects of a heartless and wicked proscription.

     “Resolved, That we heartily condemn the practice pursued by many of the Regency preachers, in reading out members as withdrawn from the Church, without even the form of a trial, or without even laboring with them. We deem it an act of outrage upon our rights as members of the Church, contrary to the Discipline, and in direct opposition to the Spirit of Christ. We truly extend to our brethren and sisters who have thus been illegally read out of our beloved Zion, the right hand of fellowship. We rejoice that the ‘Lamb’s Book of Life’ is beyond the reach of human hands. And while they continue faithful followers of Jesus, whether in or out of the Church, we hail them as members of the body of Christ.”

     The preamble was unanimously adopted.
 

     The resolutions were discussed at considerable length, those who spoke, however, being of the same mind; then they were adopted unanimously.

 
     At the second day’s proceedings the following resolution was offered by S. K. J. Chesbrough:

     “WHEREAS, The wants of the cause of God demand the holding of Camp-meetings, General Quarterly Meetings, and other general gatherings of our people, in the several Districts, demanding judicious and general counsel and cooperation, in appointing and conducting the same; therefore,

     “Resolved, That the following laymen and local preachers, together with the traveling preachers appointed by this Convention, be an executive council in each District respectively, to appoint and superintend all Camp-meetings, General Quarterly Meetings, and such other general meetings as they may judge proper; and in the interim of the sessions of this Convention, to take the general oversight of the work within the bounds of their respective districts.”

     Adopted and appointments made.

     The following resolution, introduced by S. K. J. Chesbrough, was also unanimously adopted by a rising vote:

     “Resolved, That we look with lively interest on the denominational position of the Free Methodist Church of Albion, under the pastoral care of Rev. L. Stiles, Jr.; that we rejoice in her prosperity; that we hail her as a welcome co-laborer in the vineyard of our common Master, and as a worthy member in the sisterhood of Evangelical Churches.”

     After a few other motions and resolutions of a less important character had been finally adopted the Convention adjourned.