“_Resolved_, That the organization of such (separate) conferences at present is inexpedient. “_Resolved_, That the Discipline be so amended that the fifth answer in section 10, part 2, shall read as follows: ‘The bishops may employ colored preachers to travel and preach where their services are judged necessary: _Provided_, that no one shall be so employed without having been recommended by a quarterly conference.’” Thus the work of the colored members of the Methodist Episcopal Church began as the great Church itself began, evolving out of necessity, and guided by Providence. The already existing Churches—the African and African Zion—were not allowed to operate to any great extent in the Southern States by the customs and laws of these States; hence, without giving any reason, it was wise to conclude that at that time, and in that territory, the organization of a separate colored conference among our people, within the Church, was “inexpedient.” And yet the Church was willing to do what it thought best under existing circumstances. The colored ministers within the Church were henceforth to travel and preach at the discretion of the bishops. This was the beginning of colored traveling preachers in the Methodist Episcopal Church. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IV THE COLORED PASTORATE. The employment of colored ministers in the traveling connection in the Church, like Methodism itself, was a child of necessity. It has grown to be a man, however, and is the father of several children. Notwithstanding the secession of nearly all our white conferences and Churches—500,000 members in the slaveholding States before mentioned—the record is not written where the Methodist Episcopal Church extended overtures to them to return that in any way involved the relinquishment of its hold on the throat of slavery, or that equaled that offered by our revered president, Abraham Lincoln, to the Southern Confederacy, if they would return to the Union. The whole question of opposing slavery by the Church seems to have been, all along, a work of conscience, not to be repented of; that the work had to be done, because the seal of God’s approval rested upon it. The action and firm stand taken by the Church in 1844 put a quietus upon all who professed to believe the rules relating to slavery would not be enforced during the ensuing quadrennium.