WAR AGAINST THE MEMBERS.

Arbitrary power demands abject submission. Conscious of their strength and flushed with their victory, the' preachers used every means to bring the members who op-posed the oppressive acts of the Conference, into subjection. We have never read, in any period of the church's history, of the employment by the preachers, of more arbitrary and tyrannical measures than those adopted by the preachers of the dominant party in the: Genesee Conference to subjugate those members who would not bow implicitly to their authority. Had such tyranny been exercised by the priests of the Roman Catholic church, there would have been an outcry raised which would have been heard all over the land and across the Atlantic.

To expel members and read them out with-drawn without their consent became the order of the day. The preacher was often prosecutor, witness, judge, and if not jury, it was a servile body of his own creation. He selected the committee who tried the case. Where enough men sufficiently pliant to do his bidding could not be found in the society, he imported them from a distance.

I will not do your dirty work for you, ' indignantly said a local preacher of the circuit, when asked to sit on a jury to expel Claudius Brainard. So one was brought seventy miles, from Buffalo, for the purpose.

To have attended the Albion Convention was held to be a crime sufficient for expulsion. No matter how long a man had been a member of the M. E. Church, or how important his services, or how great his sacrifices had been in its behalf; no matter how spotless his reputation or godly his life, if he dared to befriend those whom the majority. of the Conference had anathematized, he was liable to have the heaviest anathemas poured upon his head.

One preacher was arrested for praying with us. By chance, Rev. Rufus Cooley and his wife, and myself and Mrs. Roberts met at the house of Mrs. Cooley' s mother. After tea we had a season of prayer. Mr. Cooley prayed and I prayed. For this offence the character of the Rev. Rufus Cooley was arrested at the next session of the Genesee Conference !

On the 14th of February, 1859, the Rev. Claudius Brainard, of North Chili, was tried and expelled for attending the Laymen's Convention at Albion. There were three charges and nineteen specifications preferred against him, all taken from the proceedings of the Laymen's Convention.

For a number of years Claudius Brainard was an acceptable and useful, travelling preacher. His health failing him, he was obliged to locate. He continued, however, to preach, as his health permitted, and his services were needed. His acquaintance was extensive, and wherever known he was regarded as a deeply devoted Christian, and a man of unbending integrity and sincere piety. To make the matter sure, the Rev. J. B. Lankton, preacher in charge, summoned a committee of local preachers from a distance men who could be depended on to execute the will of the "Regency."

Of his expulsion, Mr. Brainard said in the Independent, of February 15th, 1859:

" Yesterday, I was expelled from the M. E. Church, for attending the Laymen's Convention. No other charge was preferred. For all harsh words or unchristian expressions, just retraction was made. My expulsion was for the expression of my honest sentiments. Had I given up my judgment to an Annual Conference, I could have retained my standing in the church. But then I should not have been a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor even a Christian. I would die a martyr's death for my own judgment, rather than yield my judgment to an Annual Conference. My soul sweetly rests in Christ. A consciousness of right, and the approval of my Judge, sustain me. I shall unite on trial, the first opportunity, with the M. E. Church. It is time the laity were. awake to their own rights in the church."

Mr. Brainard appealed to the Annual Conference, but they refused to entertain the appeal. This was contrary to an, explicit rule of discipline, but they paid no attention to the discipline, only as far as they could use it to punish those who would not submit to their dictation.

When the Rev. Wm. D. Buck, a personal friend of Mr. Brainard, was asked why he voted against entertaining his appeal, he frankly replied, " Because Bishop Simpson told me to."

William Hosmer was. the only editor that was awake to the enormities that were being perpetrated, or that had the honesty or the courage to hold them up to public reprobation. In reply to some who endeavored to conceal the fact that Mr. Brainard was expelled for attending the Albion Convention, because there were three charges against him, Mr. Hosmer said:

"Three charges were, to all intents and purposes, one charge, and but one, unless the specifications relied on to support them had their origin in circumstances apart from the Albion Convention. The crime of attending that Convention might have been prosecuted under forty different heads, and by a thousand different specifications, and yet all would have been substantially one and the same charge. In order to show that there was in reality more charges than one, it should have been made to appear that crimes unconnected with said Convention, and of a wholly different character, were alleged against the party accused. For prudential reasons, it is not uncommon in criminal prosecutions of this kind to disguise the real offense under formidable allegations which no one expects to prove or ever supposed to be true. In such a case, though the charges are not proved, they help blacken the character and cover the nakedness of the attempt. If sham charges are made, some will believe them, and in the mean time the accused can be convicted with better grace on the less flagrant points in the indictment. What the facts in this case are can only be known from the specifications themselves, and the entire history connected with the trial. The matter is in itself of very great moment, because it clearly involves the right of the laity to assemble for the redress of grievances. If attendance on such meetings is to be construed into a crime, or, if words spoken there are to be prosecuted under the grave head of ' contumacy," slander," sowing discord,' etc.; then what-ever may happen, our laymen must be silent on pain of expulsion. Such a condition of things would be nothing better than now falls to the lot of the deluded votaries of the Catholic Church. Can the brethren concerned in this apparently unfortunate piece of administration, show that Brother Brainard was not expelled for words spoken, or deeds done, at the Albion Convention? Had this case stood alone,. we should not have noticed it, as occasional errors are to be met with in the best administrations, but there is good reason to suppose that it connects with a principle which is to have a wide application.—When ecclesiastical persecution assumes a judicial form, it is one of the most tremendous scourges ever let loose upon society. The fires of Smithfield were kindled by misguided church judicatories, and every Romish auto-da-fe has the same origin. Believing not only that these ecclesiastical decapitations aye the worst kind of murder, but that slavery will demand in other Conferences a repetition of the scenes enacted in the Genesee Conference, we shall both apprise the public of what is going on and strip the proceedings of their assumed sanctity."

On the same circuit Mr. Thomas Hannah and Alexander Patten were also expelled for the same cause. They were well-to-do farmers, men of solid judgment and sound piety. Mr. Hannah had recently paid three hundred dollars for a church on the circuit, and given his note for three hundred more. This they collected, though they had unceremoniously excluded him from the house for which it was intended to pay.

Mr. John Prue, Mrs. Sarah Prue, Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins, Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, Mrs. H. Loder, Fanny Smith and Mrs. N. S. Brainard, were read out as " withdrawn" without their consent. Mr. Prue,.and others, had just paid liberally towards building the churches.

On the adjoining circuit Mr. Hart Smith, an upright, conscientious Christian, for years a member of the church, was expelled by Rev. Sumner Smith, with the help of a committee taken from Chili, the members in Churchville refusing to act in the case.

On the.13th of April, 1859, Mr. Thomas B. Catton, ' of Perry, was tried by his pastor, Rev. W. S. Tuttle. There were four charges and twenty-three specifications. presented against him. The pastor assumed in the out-set that he should be expelled, and cited him

" To answer to said charges and specifications, and show cause why you should not be expelled from the M. E. Church."

In other courts, the prosecution must show cause why the accused should be punished, but in this court it was taken for granted that one accused of being a ` Nazarite " deserved the highest penalty of the law, and he must show cause why it should not be inflicted. As in the case of Rev. Mr. Lankton, the Rev. - W. S. Tuttle claimed to be one against whom the action of the Albion Convention was directed that is to be a party in the case and yet he acted as Judge, selected his own jury, and in reality conducted the prosecution.

Mr. Catton wrote us of his trial at the time:

" You can get only a very faint idea of the proceedings, from the minutes. Brother Hibbard said in speaking of your trial, that, ` all the forms of law were exhausted;' we think in my case that all the forms of law were outraged. When a Methodist minister can take such a stand, as the Rev.W. S. Tuttle took in this trial, and can find devotees to carry out his desires, it is high time for the laity to be aroused. There can be no safety, when a man claiming to be slandered, can, on the trial of the one accused of slandering him, sit as judge, and appoint the jury, and repudiate the laws of evidence, which have been established for ages. ' Who ever heard outside of the Genesee Conference, of a member of the M. E. Church being tried, and receiving a penalty, because he could not in conscience, pay the minister appointed? Yet Mr. Tuttle stated that he had written to Bishop Baker, and had his sanction for commencing an action under this new rule. I am now satisfied that the worst construction, that can be put upon the language used by the Albion Convention—if it was not true then, is certainly true now."

In this trial, several reliable Witnesses testified that to their knowledge so-called "Regency" preachers were absent from the Conference a day at a time while the evidence was being given in the case of Rev. B. T. Roberts.

E. Sears, Thomas Jeffres and J. Grisewood testified that at different times they heard different-preachers who voted for the expulsion of B. T. Roberts say, that they did not vote for his expulsion because of the evidence adduced. The only reason any of them assigned was, because he undertook a defense of the Estes pamphlet. They heard seven different preachers at various times make this statement.

Mr. Catton made so vigorous a defense, and public sympathy was so much stirred up in his favor that, strange to say, he was not at that time expelled. He was censured. Afterwards he had another trial for " contumacy," and was finally disposed of with seven-teen others who, without their consent, were read out as withdrawn.

Mr. Jonathan Handly, of Perry, one of the solid, quiet, substantial members of the church for over thirty years, against whose ' moral and Christian character his bitterest enemies could bring no accusation, was tried for at-tending the Laymen' s Convention and expelled!

We copy the following from the Olean Advertiser, in relation to another who was expelled for attending the Albion Convention:

"James H. Brooks Esq., a resident of Olean these thirty odd years, a man of unblemished private character, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church ever since he was fifteen years old, a Christian of acknowledged worth and usefulness, and a citizen against whom the breath of calumny has never breathed until now, has been expelled from the church.. This fact being announced, the inquiry is natural and pertinent—" Why?" This is just what we would like to know.

James H. Brooks has grown up in our midst from boyhood; his private worth is as familiar to our citizens, as a " thrice told tale." Generosity, integrity, honesty, and living piety, are eminent characteristics of the man. For the last twenty-eight years, he has been a member of the M. E. Church, and has contributed liberally for the advancement of Method-ism, and the promulgation of the Gospel. The ministers and brethren of the church, have ever found a place at his board, and a welcome at his fire-side. It was indeed a truthful exclamation of the accused after his conviction, and was not contradicted by his accusers, " my old mother sitting there, has given more meals to Methodists, than all the rest of this church together."

The trial and expulsion of such a man, naturally produces in the public mind, a supposition that he has been guilty of some heinous offence, either against good morals or the peace of society, and that the proceedings were necessary to purify the church, and to warn the world against an unchristian example.

We however learn, and are gratified in being able to say that such is not the case, that he has neither adopted a spurious faith, nor has been guilty of any heresies, condemned by the doctrines of his church, nor has he indulged in any impropriety of conduct, that would warrant under any ordinary circumstances, his expulsion from the church.

In every human mind there is an innate sense of justice which is offended and aroused at acts of oppression and palpable wrongs. We confess we partake of the general feeling pervading this community, that a grievous wrong has been done Mr. Brooks.

So intolerable did the oppressive acts of the dominant preachers become that the laymen's Convention, to which the Rev. Mr. Crawford alludes in his account of the Bergen Camp-meeting, was called. In the call, the Hon. Abner I. Wood, President, and the secretaries, Rev. S. K. J. Chesbrough, and W. H. Doyle, say to the members of the late "Albion Convention:"

" DEAR BRETHREN: At. our session at Albion, we were authorized to call a meeting again in June. We feel that the difficulties among us demand such a meeting. Ever since our action at Albion, we have been misrepresented, and our characters slandered. No stone has been left unturned, either by flattery or threatenings, to intimidate many from the positions then taken. How many have been led thus to with-draw from us, we know not; nor is it our concern. If any one feels duty thus calls him to retract, let him thus decide, and walk no more with us. We feel satisfied that not only a vast majority of those that attended still adhere to those resolutions, but many more who did not adhere, are now convinced that we have the right on our side, and to day are in sympathy with us. Important interests are. at stake; we feel the iron heel of oppression heavily laid upon us as laymen. We feel unwilling to become the slaves of any power. Many of our beloved brethren, who acted with us there, have been tried for attending that Convention some have been expelled. Let us meet together and show to them that the cause is one, and when they suffer, we suffer with them. If our action there is to be the "war-note," and the moving cause of our decapitation or removal from office, wherever possible, the time has come, yea, fully come, for us to stand firm and reiterate that our sentiments and our resolutions are still unchanged, and that we intend to maintain the position then taken, let the cost be what it may to us ; the fear of expulsion or removal from office should never drive a Methodist from doing his duty.

We need also to reaffirm our undiminished confidence in our beloved Brothers Roberts and McCreery, and our condemnation of the unjust expulsion of these brethren from the Conference. Let us, to a man, stand by them, they are worthy of our sympathy and our." material aid."

We cordially and earnestly invite all our brethren who are in sympathy with us, and who are willing to act, to meet us in Convention at North Bergen, on the Genesee Camp Ground, Thursday, June 20, 1859, at 4 p. M., to take such action as may there be deemed advisable.