Undated — to Thomas L. Douglass
ASB_VOL3.PDF, PDF page 490
There are two of these extracts from letters. Ezekiel Cooper and Joshua Wells, the “city lords,” had led attacks on the presiding eldership. They wanted the office to be elective.
BALTIMORE, MD.
May 27, 1808 [?]
[Extracts of a letter to T. L. Douglass]1
[TO THOMAS L. DOUGLASS]2
Such a deliberate attempt to take away the last remains of Episcopacy, deprives us of our privileges, wholesale and retail. Ah! have I lost the confidence of the American People and preachers? or of only a few overgrown members that have been disappointed? and the city lords who wish to be bishops, presiding elders, deacons, and to reign without us— over us?
* * * * * * * * * *
Oh, to assault a man they know can neither fight nor fly! For was it a man’s covenant, I could soon show General George Washington3— resign.
[FRANCIS ASBURY]
William W. Bennett, Memorials of Methodism in Virginia, 584
Notes (3)
- Bennett, Memorial of Methodism in Virginia, indicated that this letter was written after the close of the General Conference of 1808. The conference met May 6-26. ↩
- Presiding elder on the Yadkin District, North Carolina, in the Virginia Conference. ↩
- Reference is to Washington’s refusal to run a third time for President. ↩