The increasing number of divorces in North Carolina and the growing laxity of the laws on that subject was a problem which gave the Bishop much concern. In 1904 he called the matter to the attention of his diocesan convention and suggested a remedy for the situation. The Bishop asserted that there had been sufficient talk and theorizing upon the divorce question and that now was the time for positive action. The apathy of the public conscience, which had permitted the divorce law to be greatly modified, was, in his opinion, the cause of the divorce evil. Bishop Cheshire believed there was only one true reason for divorce: adultery. For many years it had been the only cause recognized by the state law, but in recent years frequent changes in the law to meet individual cases had created an unjustifiable condition. Not one of these modifications of the law had been adopted upon "any general principle of morals or of social science." The Bishop called upon the convention to express its condemnation of the present legislation on the divorce question, and to issue an address to the people of the state urging the necessity of reforming the divorce laws. He also suggested that the convention appoint a committee to communicate with the other Christian bodies of the state in order to secure united action on the subject. After serious deliberation, the convention indorsed the Bishop's position. It authorized him to appoint a committee, of which he should be chairman, to publish an address to the people of the state expressing the sentiment of the Episcopal Church on the divorce question; and to prepare a memorial to the General Assembly requesting that the divorce laws be restored to the status of the code of 1883. The convention sent a request to the Diocese of East Carolina, the Jurisdiction of Asheville, and all the other denominations of the state to join in this memorial. Bishop Cheshire lost no time in forwarding to every church conference or synod, meeting prior to January, 1905, the resolutions of his diocesan convention. Favorable action was taken on the resolutions by the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and Methodist Protestant churches. The Bishop attended the Presbyterian Synod and the Conference of the Methodist Church, and was cordially received. When the General Assembly met in 1905, Governor Robert B. Glenn recommended that the divorce laws be restored to the form as found in the code of 1883. After a close consideration of the memorial of the North Carolina churches, the legislature enacted a law which embodied in substance the request of the memorialists.