DEDICATORY PREFACE

To Gabriel P. Disosway, Esq.

Mr. Dear Sir, — In submitting to you the first two volumes of the "History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America," I acknowledge, with grateful pleasure, my obligations to you for the counsels and encouragements you have constantly given me in my laborious task. During more than a quarter of a century the extraordinary "Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, called Methodism," has been to me a profoundly interesting study. But such are the paucity, the carelessness even, and consequent inaccuracy of our early documents, that my task has had extreme embarrassments. So formidable have these been that, could they have been estimated in the outset, they would have deterred me from my undertaking. No man has given me more intimate sympathy or more valuable advice in my researches than yourself. Your ancestral connection with the early Huguenotic religious history of the country, and a Methodistic parentage which has rendered you familiar with nearly the entire history of American Methodism, have enabled you to afford me indispensable aid, and have enabled me, as difficulty after difficulty has vanished, to rejoice in the labors of my pen.

My public function, as a Church editor, afforded me, for years, means of gathering fragmentary accounts of our history, as they occasionally appeared in my periodical "exchanges." They accumulated in large collections. An early correspondence with many of the fathers of the denomination, most of whom have now gone to their rest, procured autobiographical sketches, local historical records, and other invaluable manuscripts, which remain with me as precious relics. I found, in these materials, many data which, though unsuitable for a general history of the denomination, were too important to be lost, and might be properly enough used in a local narrative. More than fifteen years since, a portion of them were, therefore, published in a volume of "Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern States, comprising Biographical Notices of its Early Preachers, Sketches of its first Churches, and Reminiscences of its Early Struggles and Successes."

The unexpected interest excited by this publication led to a second series, some twelve years since, entitled, "Memorials of the Early Progress of Methodism in the Eastern States," etc. As many, if not, indeed, most of the early preachers of Methodism in New England, were from the Middle States, and, by the transitions of the "itinerant system," were tossed, not only back again to their original fields, but, many of them, to remote parts of the country, their personal history, as given in these early volumes, presented but a few data of the general history of the denomination. Historical students know that no literary labor is more onerous than the preparation of works like these. The private correspondence, the collection and combination of fugitive and fragmentary accounts, the collation of documents, the harmonization of conflicting statements, the grouping of events lacking often their most essential connecting links, the portraiture of characters, historically important but almost totally obscured in undeserved oblivion, present embarrassments which may well constrain the writer often to throw down his pen in despair. But I have been abundantly compensated by the facts that the "Memorials" have become recognized as indispensable authorities, for reference, in subsequent historical works on Methodism, that they are incessantly cited in accounts of eastern Churches and Conferences, and that they have rescued, at the last moment, many heroic characters from utter oblivion.

I have even had the presumption to suppose that, as no general ecclesiastical historian can now ignore the primitive Church chroniclers, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Evagrius, feeble and blundering narrators as they were, so these humble contributions of my pen shall, by the mere fact of their chronological precedence, be necessary documents of reference for the abler writers of the future. They have been followed by one effect for which I have especially to congratulate myself: they were the first in that numerous series of local narratives of the denomination which have since enriched us with our best historical materials. "Memorials of Methodism in New Jersey," by Atkinson; "Annals of Southern Methodism," by Deems; "Sketches of Western Methodism," and several similar works by Finley; "Methodism within the Troy Conference," by Parks; "Early Methodism within the bounds of the Old Genesee Conference," by Peck; "Sketches and Collections," by Carroll; "Lost Chapters," and the "Heroes," by Wakeley; the "Heroines," by Coles; "Methodism in Canada," by Playter; "Methodism in America," by Lednum; "German Methodist Preachers," by Miller, and many similar and equally valuable works, besides almost innumerable biographical contributions to our history, have, since, been incessantly issuing from the press, and it seems probable that few recoverable documents or reminiscences, of our early times, will now be allowed to perish. If there has been somewhat of antiquarian extravagance in this prevalent and infectious Spirit of inquiry; if it has sometimes harassed our public press with belabored controversies about names and dates, it is nevertheless pardonable, and indeed admirable, for the rich results it has afforded. The researches of Wakeley have especially given us facts of priceless value, and I cannot too strongly acknowledge my obligations to him. The occasional publications of Drs. Coggeshall, Hamilton, and Roberts deserve equal commendation. These writers, though differing on important questions, have illuminated phases of our history which formerly seemed hopelessly obscured.

The two volumes of "Memorials" were but preliminary to a more elaborate work, "The History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century, called Methodism, considered in its Different Denominational Forms, and its Relations to British and American Protestantism," in three volumes. I know of no work on Methodism which proposed so comprehensive a scope; many of its necessary routes of research had never, to my knowledge, been explored; but if at any time I was bewildered, and disposed despondently to retreat from the labyrinth of incoherent data and conflicting authorities, as well as from other and more vexatious discouragements, with which our mutual confidence has made you familiar, your genial voice has never failed to summon me forward with renewed determination.

Early in the prosecution of these works I became convinced of two facts: first, that if successfully completed they might be more useful than any other possible service of my life to the Church; but secondly, that they could not be successfully prosecuted without comparative retirement from most other public labors, for, at least, some years. During nearly a quarter of a century my official position in the Church had kept me reluctantly engrossed in exhaustive labors and ecclesiastical agitations. The latter were always repugnant to my best instincts; and the historical tasks I had planned seemed to justify a resolute escape from them. The General Conference at Buffalo presented an opportunity which I accepted with an unutterable sense of relief. During some years I have stood apart from our public controversies, asking of all parties the favor of being, as far as possible, ignored in their combats, their party schemes and official promotions; assuring myself, however vainly, that, at last, they themselves might acknowledge I had chosen the better part, and had worthily, however unsuccessfully, attempted a better service for our common cause. Confining myself to quiet pastoral duties, besides my literary tasks, among a people who have facilitated my aims, by a generosity equal to their abundant means, and amid a picturesque and tranquilizing scenery, singularly congenial with meditative labors, I have spent what has been the happiest and most hopeful period of my public life, in the attempt to furnish the Church with such a history of its providential career as it may not willingly let die. I have admitted no interruption of this plan of life, except a short interval, devoted to a biographical tribute to our common and venerated friend, Dr Nathan Bangs.

The three volumes of the "History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century," etc., are devoted to a survey of general Methodism centralizing in the British "Wesleyan Connection." While, therefore, it is as exact a record of the latter organization as I could make it, the foreign ramifications of the movement could be treated only in outline, and in their essential relations to the central body. This is especially the case with the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose fruitful history might well claim as many, if not more, volumes than that of British Methodism. In the preface to that work intimation is, therefore, given of a further history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, not as a completion, but as a complement to it, and frequently, in marginal notes, the reader is referred to this future record for fuller information on American subjects. My design has been, in fine, to write a distinct history of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as complete as I could make it, and though complementary to the preceding work, yet as independent of the latter as if this had not been written. You have in the present volumes the first installment of my new work. I have endeavored to render these volumes complete in themselves, so that no contingency, which may interfere with the further prosecution of my plan, can impair the present portion of it. They are conclusive as a history of the "Planting" of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, narrating the progress of Methodism in the United States from its introduction to its Episcopal organization at the memorable "Christmas Conference," and its subsequent outspread generally in the nation, and presenting, in its organic completeness, the theological and disciplinary platform on which the whole fabric of the denomination has been constructed.

An author is seldom a good judge of the probable popular interest of his book. I have endeavored to hold all such considerations in abeyance; a full and a correct history of the Church is what we have needed, and I have attempted to provide it. If, however, the reader shall share a tithe of the interest with which I have traced the details of this narrative, and if, especially, he shall have patience to follow me in the future and grander development of their results, I presume to hope that he will find the history of this portion of the "kingdom of God" on earth as significant and as impressive as the contemporaneous history of any other religious body. The interest of the present volumes must, however, be quite different from that of the preceding work, on the general history of Methodism; in the latter imposing characters appear immediately on the scene, the Wesleys, Whitefield, Fletcher, with many other great men, and not a few saintly women, and the historic movement goes on with singular unity and almost epic interest to its culmination in its centenary jubilee. In the present volumes we wander over a hardly defined field, gathering fragmentary and scattered, though precious materials; brought together and rightly placed, these fragments at last standout a goodly and stately structure, a shining "city of God;" but the vague, preliminary, if not tedious toil of gathering and shaping them must precede the imposing construction. Many really great characters — Asbury, Coke, Whatcoat, Garrettson, Lee, etc., — enter the scene, but they hardly yet assume their heroic proportions. We see them but ascending to those high positions where they will hereafter appear as colossal historic statues, at once the architects and the ornaments of the great temple.

If, however, I were amenable to the bar of criticism for the comparative popular interest of the two productions, I might well hesitate to appear before the public with the present volumes, after the unexpected favorable reception of the former work. The historian must not invent his materials, in the popular sense of the word; he can only do so in its etymological sense; success in this respect is, therefore, the only just question of criticism. To this inquisition I willingly submit these volumes. The first historian of Methodism, Jesse Lee, gives to the period I have gone over, but little more than half of his small volume, inserting large official documents; Bangs gives it but one volume, inserting still larger documents, including nearly an entire copy of the Discipline; I have added to their materials enough to make, with no slight condensation, two volumes. These additional materials have mostly come to light since the publication of the works of my predecessors. I flatter myself that their importance, aside from their popular interest, will justify my attempt to provide this new narrative of our early history.

I have had to meet one somewhat invidious necessity — the correction of not a few errors, especially chronological mistakes, in our primitive documents and in some of my historical predecessors. I must doubtless bear similar criticism, if my work shall be deemed worthy of it; and I shall heartily welcome it, especially if it shall be conducted with the candor and cordiality which I have endeavored to exemplify. Our early records are so defective, they were printed with such apparent haste, and many of the events I have narrated are so incoherently given by them, that it can hardly be presumed I have not made grave mistakes. To the many students of our denominational history, in all parts of the country, I look for such corrections as shall enable me, hereafter, to rectify largely my pages.

I have thus, my dear friend, taken advantage of your name and confidence to say many things, unusual in a preface, and liable, perhaps, to be deemed superfluous, if not egotistical. If the proverbial whimsicality of authors should not be admitted as my excuse, I might add that there are reasons, known to yourself if not to other readers, why these somewhat personal remarks should be excused.

With grateful affection,

Abel Stevens,

Mamaroneck Parsonage, September, 1864