The government of the Methodist Episcopal Church was completely in the hands of the preachers, who received their appointments an nually front the superintendents. who were thus invested with large legal and indefinite moral power. This excessive clericalism was the occa sion of the first two schisms. James O'Kelly, an earnest Irishman of warm piety and strong per sonality, tried to have the right of appeal to the Conference recognized in the case of a preacher who felt oppressed by an appointment by the bishop. and, failing in this. led a schism in Virginia in 1792. Ile organized the Republican Methodist Church, which was finally absorbed by other movements. Of greater significance was the agitation to admit laymen into the Church councils, which. booing refused by the General Conference of 1821, led to a new Church, in 1828, whieit took the 1111111e of the Methodist Protestant Church in 1830. This Church repudiated the episcopate. gave laymen their full rights, and Inn. di.(litangled from hierarchical methods.
To many minds at one time slavery scented the article of a standing or failing Church. At the beginning Methodism had taken strong ground against slavery. hut exigeneies of the work in the Southern States led to an abandon ment of the old ground. The anti-slavery men of the North would not yield, however. and in 1813 organized the Thrsteyna Methodist Connection at Vtica, N. Y. In government they are similar to the Alethodist Protestant Church. They hold strieter ground in regard to secret societies and intemperance than the old (lima. The great division on slavery was that in 1844-45. in con ncctiOn With the of Bishop dames O. Andrew, who had married a slave-holding wife. The Mithoolist Episcopal Church. South, was organ ized, taking most of the soeieties in the Smith. This Chur-It has the same :111r1 eustoms as the elder body, with some moditiention of the disciplinary provisions. The latest division of consequence was that in Western New York in 1860, when the Free Methodist Church was or ganized, a reaction toward the strenuous ideals of primitive Methodism in regard to secret so cieties, plainness of dress. the use of tobacco, and
in the interests of positive Christian teaching and practice. Other and smaller separations have taken place prompted by a desire either for a more democratic or for a purer Christianity, or both, the latest being the organization of the Independent Methodist Church, at Newark, N. J., in 1900.
Colored Methodism has had free course in the United States. Housed at first in the parent Church, the colored people came out ill Philadel phia under Richard Alien in 1816, and organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church, with doctrine aml polity similar to the old Church. Four years later the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. was organized in New York. The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church of America was organized by action of the Methodist Epis- • copal Church, South, December 16, 1870. The Methodist Episcopal Church has colored con ferences in the South. an integral part of her organization, but she has never elected a colored bishop since the death of Francis Burns in 1863.
The struggle for the rights of laymen in America has been similar to that in England. , The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, not only 1 (since 1869) admits laymen to the General Con ference in equal numbers, but admits four lay men from every district in the Annual Confer ence. The African Churches do the same. After the organization of the Methodist Protestant Church, 1828-30. the agitatbin rested in the Methodist Episcopal Church until 1852. But it was not until 1872 that that Church granted place to laymen in her supreme council; and then only to the extent of two laymen from each Annual Conference, which gave the preponderance to the ministers three to one. In 1900 the ratio of rep resentation was made equal.