“‘To the question of mixed schools we have given our most serious and prayerful attention. It is a subject beset with peculiar difficulties. That the colored man has a just and equal right, not only to life and liberty, but also to the means of grace and facilities for education, we not only admit, but most positively affirm. We are in duty bound to provide for and to secure to every class of our membership, so far as possible, a fair and equal opportunity in Church and school accommodations. And in so far as this is done our duty is performed, and the equal rights justly demanded of us thus fairly and fully conceded. _Mixed congregations and mixed schools may, in many places, be most desirable and best for all concerned. In other cases one class or the other, or both, may prefer separate congregations and separate schools._ Equal rights to the best facilities for intellectual and spiritual culture; equal rights in the eligibility to every position of honor and trust, and equal rights in the exercise of a free and unconstrained choice in all social relations, is a principle at once American, Methodistic, and Scriptural.’ “Upon a more thorough examination of the italicised parts of this report it was feared by many that it would justify _forcible_ separation on the color-line where ‘those on the ground’ saw fit to adopt that policy. In the light of recent events that fear was well founded. The Chattanooga University trustees have done just what it was feared might be done under the resolution and preamble above quoted. If no further action had been taken by the General Conference, that body would be compelled to bear the responsibility of the rejection of colored students by the Chattanooga authorities. In the absence of further action the trustees could say that the ‘question of separate or mixed schools’ is ‘one of expediency, which is to be left to the choice and administration of those on the ground.’ ‘We are _on the ground_, and we hold that _expediency_ requires that colored students shall be excluded from our university, and we so decree.’