The secretary reported that one hundred and seventy-six churches and twelve missionary and other associations were represented in the session of the conference, and that about four hundred and thirty delegates were present. An important debate arose on a substitute to the preamble and first article of the constitution of the National Conference which was offered by the Rev. F. E. Abbott, of Dover, N. H., and which was as follows:

Whereas, The object of Christianity is the universal diffusion of love, righteousness, and truth; and the attainment of this object depends, under God, upon individual and collective Christian activity; and collective Christian activity, to be efficient, must be thoroughly organized; and,

Whereas, Perfect freedom of thought, which is at once the right and the duty of every human being, always leads to diversity of opinion, and is therefore hindered by common creeds or statements of faith;

and,

Whereas, The only reconciliation of the duties of collective Christian activity and individual freedom of thought lies in an efficient organization for practical Christian work, based rather on unity of spirit than on uniformity of belief:

Article 1. Therefore, the churches here assembled, disregarding all sectarian or theological differences, and offering a cordial fellowship to all who will join

with them in Christian work, unite themselves in a common body, to be known as the National Confer ence of Unitarian and Independent Churches.

Rev. Mr. Abbott stated that the principal objection of those whom he represented was to the words, "the Lord Jesus Christ" and "the kingdom of his Son." These words contained a doctrine by implication which he and his friends could not subscribe to. They wanted to work with the National Conference; but they could not work with it on the present platform without losing their self-respect. Addresses in favor of the amendment having been made by C. C. Burleigh and Rev. Mr. Towne, and against it by Dr. Bellows, Dr. Osgood, Dr. Clarke, Rev. Mr. Mayo, and Rev. S. J. May, it was rejected, on October 10th, by a large majority. On October 11th Rev. Mr. Abbott asked to have a distinct understanding of whether the preamble as understood by the majority of the conference was binding upon all its members. The chair decided that the

question could not be entertained, but he would say for himself that he regarded liberty of interpretation as an inalienable right. Rev. J. F. Clarke, in the name of the committee charged by the National Unitarian Convention, held in New York in 1865, with the duty of promoting acquaintance, fraternity, and unity between the Unitarians and all Christians of like liberal faith, recommended that, in the first article of the constitution, the words, "National Conference of Unitarian Churches" be amended so as to read, "National Conference of Unitarian and other Christian Churches." This amendment was almost unanimously carried. A resolution, introduced by Rev. Mr. Hatch, to explain the above amendment, was as follows:

Resolved, That, in adopting the term "other Christian churches," we do not mean to exclude religious

societies which have no distinctive church organiza. tion, and are 'not nominally Christians, if they desire to cooperate with us in what we call Christian work. This resolution was rejected. Rev. Frederick Hickley offered the following:

Resolved, That this Conference reciprocates the expression of cordial sympathy and willingness to cooperate with us contained in the resolutions passed by the recent United States Convention of Universalists.

Resolved, That Rev. J. F. Clarke, Rev. S. J. May, and Rev. Robert Collyer, be a committee to promote acquaintance, fraternity, and unity, between ourselves and all our brethren of liberal faith.

Both these resolutions were unanimously passed. Rev. E. E. Hale presented a series recommending the formation of several local conferences, and instructing the council to superintend this work. These local associations are to hold meetings from time to time, ascertain and report upon the religious condition and wants of their respective districts, and do what they can to strengthen the churches already existing, and establish new ones in the most promising localities. Each conference is entitled to three delegates in the National Conference. The motion of Mr. Hale was unanimously adopted. It was also resolved, on motion of Mr. Hale, that the meetings of the conference he held biennially, instead of annually, and that the constitution be altered accordingly. A resolution offered by Rev. Frederick Frothingham, inviting the Unitarian churches in Canada to join the conference, was passed, when the president and the friends of the Meadville Theological School presented a resolution to raise $34,000 for the endowment fund of the school. The conference subscribed on the spot $30,000, it having previously been stated that friends in Meadville would give $4,000. The following resolution on the subject of temperance was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the renewed effort for the remoral of intemperance throughout the country should receive our hearty encouragement and support, and we urge upon all to help on the work by the personal Protest of word and example against the drinking usages of society, and by such other methods as may seem to them wisest and best.

On the state of the country, the following resolutions were offered by Rev. A. R.. Putnam, recommended by the Rev. Mr. May, in the name of the committee to which they had been referred, and unanimously and enthu siastically passed.

andother Christian churches, that we gratefully reeResolved, By the National Conference of Unitarian ognize the goodness of God in that He has in His providence brought to a triumphant conclusion the warfare which our people waged for the maintenance of our Union and the safety of our free institutions, and that He has made the civil contest in which we have been engaged to end in the emancipation of our land from the sin and curse of human slavery.

Resolved, That we deem it to be the solemn duty of all loyal men to see to it that the Union, which has been saved by loyal arms, and cemented by loyal blood, shall be intrusted to the supreme control of those who have proved themselves true to the cause of the Government and the interests of freedom; and

that we insist that the fruits of our great victory, won by such vast sacrifices and untold sufferings, shall not be lost in an evil hour to our country and to the world.

Resolved, That we do most profoundly sympathize with our fellow-countrymen, both white and black, in the South, in all the persecutions and trials to which they are subjected, and that we will give ourselves no rest until black and white alike are secure in the enjoyment of the right of suffrage, and of all the privileges and immunities of free citizens of a free

The Rev. H. W. Bellows, D. D., Artemas Carter, the Rev. J. F. Clarke, D. D., the Rev. Charles Lowe, Warren Sawyer, the Rev. A. D. Mayo, C. S. May, Charles E. Guild, Esq., the Rev. E. E. Hale, and O. G. Steele, were declared members of the "Council of Ten," who, with the president, vice-presidents, and secretaries of the meeting, constitute the officers of the National Conference until the next meeting of the Conference.

Rev. Charles Lowe, Secretary of the American Unitarian Association, gave a condensed statement of what the association had done the past year, in order to show what support it deserved. During the year 1866 it had aided fifty-nine feeble societies, giving opportunities of hearing Unitarian doctrines preached in 107 places where they had not been held before, and employed 19 missionaries for three months or more, besides 87 others for longer or shorter periods.

The convention voted to raise $200,000 during the current year for expenditure in the general missionary work, to sustain feeble churches, to carry the missionaries of the church to the ontposts of civilization on our own continent, planting the standard of the Gospel in new fields, distributing the literature of the Unitarian Church, and in aid of religious young men who desire to devote themselves to the work of the Gospel ministry.

In accordance with the resolution concerning the organization of local conferences, a number of such conferences was organized in the last month of the year 1866. (A full list is given in the Year-book of the Unitarian Congregational Churches," for 1867.) In order to promote cooperation with Universalists and other "liberal Christians," a number of conferences of liberal Christians was organized. One of the first conferences of this class was the "New York Central Conference of Liberal Christians," in the organization of which at Rochester, November, 1866, 22 Universalist, 7 Unitarian, and 1 "Christian Connection" clergymen, with a number of lay delegates, took part. According to the constitution of this conference its object

"shall be to promote the religious life and mutual sympathy of the churches which unite in it, and to enable them to coöperate in missionary and other work." The conference "shall be composed of all accredited clergymen and churches within its limits, and each church, college, and Christian society, may be represented by two lay delegates." The officers of the conference were authorized to advise in the settlement, in such localities as may require their mediation, of any differences arising as to the name, union, and denominational connection of a society or church.

UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. This denomination published, in 1866, for the first time, a denominational almanac, from which we gather the following intelligence concerning their present condition and history:

to the ordinances, individual conviction decides whether baptism shall be observed according to Baptist or Pedobaptist views, and whether feet-washing shall or shall not be practised. A general publishing house, three periodicals in English, and one in German, advocate the sentiments of the denomination, and eight colleges and seminaries receive its fostering care. Since the organization of its General Missionary Society, in 1853, $18,379.96 have been expended on its foreign mission (in Western Africa); $127,667.75 on its frontier missions; and $276,249.43 on its home missions (under the control of self-sustaining conferences). By the foregoing table it is seen that the denomination at present numbers 35 annual conferences, with 789 itinerant preachers, and 3,297 classes or societies. It has 755 local preachers, and a membership of 91,570 (an increase since the last report of 7,047), whose contributions toward all purposes amounted, for the year, to $341,279.91-something less than four dollars each. With 1,173 houses of worship, it maintains 1,775 Sabbathschools. Of its five bishops, one-Rev. J. J. Glossbrenner-resides in Augusta County, Va.; and the conference which bears the name of the State, numbers 3,164 members. But the great body of its churches lie in the Northwest.

UNITED STATES. The disapprobation of a portion of the people of the United States with the measures adopted by the President for the restoration of the Southern States to the Union was not decisively expressed until the meeting of Congress in December, 1865. One of the first acts of a large majority in each House was the appointment of a joint committee of fifteen, to which was referred all questions relating to the conditions and manner in which Congress would recognize those States as members of the Union. Meantime the credentials of all persons sent as Representatives or Senators from them were laid upon the table in each House, there to remain until the final action of the Committee of Ffteen. (See CONGRESS U. S.) This was followed by the passage of an act, known as the "Civil Rights Act," and another for the extension of the "Freedmen's Bureau." Both these bills were vetoed by President Johnson. (See PUBLIO DOCUMENTS.) Upon their return to Congress they were reconsidered and passed by the majority required by the Constitution to make them laws of the United States. An examination of these acts, and the debates which took place on their passage, will serve to show what were the views then entertained by the ruling majority in the Government, relative to the people in the Southern States; while, on the other hand, the veto messages present the opinions of the Executive on these incidental issues. The great issue of reconstruction was not yet developed; but enough was seen to make it evident that the disagreement between the Executive and Congress foreshadowed during the previous year, now not only actually existed, but was likely to become wider and more

irreconcilable. Meanwhile the relations of the Southern States remained in abeyance. The great number of propositions offered by individ ual members of Congress relative to the people of the Southern States and their restoration to the Union, may be seen in the preceding pages of the debates. It should be stated that, in addition to these, a proposition was offered by Senator Stewart, of Nevada, which was afterward designated as the "Universal Suffrage and General Amnesty Measure." It proposed to receive into the Union, and admit to representation in Congress each one of the Southern States which should so amend its constitution as-1. To do away with all existing distinctions as to civil rights and disabilities among the various classes of its population, by reason either of race or color, or previous condition of servitude. 2. To repudiate all pecuniary indebtedness which said State may have heretofore contracted, incurred, or assumed, in connection with the late war. 3. To yield all claim to compensation on account of the liberation of its slaves. 4. To provide for the extension of the elective franchise to all persons upon the same terms and conditions, making no discrimination on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude: Provided, That those who were qualified to vote in the year 1860 by the laws of the respective States, shall not be disfranchised by reason of any new tests or conditions which have been or may be prescribed since that year.

Upon the ratification of these conditions by a majority of the voters of the State, a general amnesty should be proclaimed in regard to all persons in each State who were connected with armed opposition to the Federal Government,

The views of the Executive Department of the Government on the state of the country had not only been expressed in speeches during the previous year, and in the message to Congress assembled in December, 1865, but in a conversation with Senator Dixon of Connecticut, on January 28th, the President is reported to have expressed the following views:

The President said that he doubted the propriety at this time of making further amendments to the Constitution. One great amendment had already ished within the limits of the United States, and s been made, by which slavery had forever been abolnational guaranty thus given that the institution should never exist in the land. Propositions to amend the Constitution were becoming as numerous as preambles and resolutions at town meetings called with the administration of local affairs. All this, in to consider the most ordinary questions connected his opinion, had a tendency to diminish the dignity and prestige attached to the Constitution of the coun try, and to lessen the respect and confidence of the people in their great charter of freedom. If, how tion, changing the basis of representation and taxever, amendments are to be made to the Constitu ation (and he did not deem them at all necessary at the present time), he knew of none better than a simple proposition, embraced in a few lines, making of representation, and the value of property the basis in each State the number of qualified voters the basis of direct taxation. Such a proposition could be embraced in the following terms:

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to the number of qualified voters in each State.

"Direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to the value of all taxable property in each State."

An amendment of this kind would, in his opinion, place the basis of representation and direct taxation upon correct principles. The qualified voters were, for the most part, men who were subject to draft and enlistment when it was necessary to repel invasion, suppress rebellion, and quell domestic violence and insurrection. They risk their lives, shed their blood, and peril their all to uphold the Government and give protection, security, and value to property. It seemed but just that property should compensate for the benefits thus conferred by defraying the expenses incident to its protection and enjoyment.

Such an amendment, the President also suggested, would remove from Congress all issues in reference to the political equality of the races. It would leave the States to determine absolutely the qualifications of their own voters with regard to color; and thus the number of representatives to which they would be entitled in Congress would depend upon the number upon whom they conferred the right of suffrage.

The President, in this connection, expressed the opinion that the agitation of the negro-franchise question in the District of Columbia at this time was the mere entering-wedge to the agitation of the question throughout the States, and was ill-timed, uncalled for, and calculated to do great harm. He believed that it would engender enmity, contention, and strife between the two races, and lead to a war between them, which would result in great injury to both, and the certain extermination of the negro population. Precedence, he thought, should be given to more important and urgent matters, legislation upon which was essential for the restoration of the Union, the peace of the country, and the prosperity of the people.

Again, on February 7th, a colored delegation called upon the President, and had an interview with him. Mr. George T. Downing, in his address to the President, said:

We are in a passage to equality before the law. God hath made it by opening a Red Sea. We would have your assistance through the same. We come to you in the name of the United States, and are delegated to come by some who have unjustly worn iron manacles on their bodies-by some whose minds have been manacled by class legislation in States called free. The colored people of the States of Illinois, Wisconsin, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, the New England States, and the District of Columbia, have specially delegated

us to come.

Our coming is a marked circumstance, noting determined hope that we are not satisfied with an amendment prohibiting slavery, but that we wish it enforced with appropriate legislation. This is our desire. We ask for it intelligently, with the knowl. edge and conviction that the fathers of the Revolution intended freedom for every American-that they should be protected in their rights as citizens and equal before the law. We are Americans, nativeborn Americans. We are citizens, we are glad to have it known to the world, as bearing no doubtful record on this point. On this fact, and with confidence in the triumph of justice, we base our hope. We see no recognition of color or race in the organic law of the land. It knows no privileged class, and therefore we cherish the hope that we may be fully enfranchised, not only here in this District, but

throughout the land. We respectfully submit that rendering any thing less than this will be rendering to us less than our just due; that granting any thing less than our full rights will be a disregard of our just rights, of due respect of our feelings.

Mr. Frederick Douglass followed in an address, in which be said:

In the order of Divine Providence you are placed in a position where you have the power to save or destroy us; to bless or blast us-I mean our whole race. Your noble and humane predecessor placed in our hands the sword to assist in saving the nation, and we do hope that you, his able successor, will favorably regard the placing in our hands the ballot with which to save ourselves.

We shall submit no argument on that point. The fact that we are the subjects of Government, and subject to taxation, subject to volunteer in the service of the country, subject to being drafted, subject to bear the burdens of the State, makes it not improper that we should ask to share in the privileges of this condition.

The President, in his reply,

said:

Now, it is always best to talk about things practically, and in a common-sense way. I have said, and I repeat here, that if the colored man in the United States could find no other Moses, or any Moses that would be more able and efficient than myself, I would be his Moses to lead him from bondage to freedom; that I would pass him from a land where he had lived in slavery to a land (if it were in our reach) of freedom. Yes, I would be willing to pass with him through the Red Sea to the Land of Promise --to the land of liberty; but I am not willing, under any circumstances, to adopt a policy which I believe will only result in the sacrifice of his life and the shedding of his blood. I think I know what I say. I feel what I say; and I feel well assured, that if the policy urged by some be persisted in, it will result in great injury to the white as well as to the colored man. There is a great deal of talk about the sword in one hand accomplishing an end, and the ballot accomplishing another.

These things all do very well, and sometimes have forcible application. We talk about justice; we talk about right; we say that the white man has been in the wrong in keeping the black man in slavery as long as he has. That is all true. Again, we talk about the Declaration of Independence and equality before the law. You understand all that, and know how to appreciate it. But, now, let us look each other in the face; let us go to the great mass of colored men throughout the slave States; let us see the condition in which they are at the present timeand it is bad enough we all know-and suppose by some magic touch you could say to every one, shall vote to-morrow," how much would that ameliorate their condition at this time?

**

"You

Now, let us get closer to this subject, and talk about it. What relation have the colored man and the white man heretofore occupied in the South? * I was getting at the relation that subsisted between the white man and the colored man. A very small proportion of white persons, compared with the whole number of such, owned the colored people of the South. I might instance the State of Tennessee in illustration. There were there twentyseven non-slaveholders to one slaveholder, and yet the slave-power controlled that State. Let us talk about this matter as it is. Although the colored man was in slavery there, and owned as property in the sense and in the language of that locality and of that community, yet, in comparing his condition and his position there with the non-slaveholder, he usually estimated his importance just in proportion to the number of slaves that his master owned, with the non-slaveholder.

Have you ever lived upon a plantation?

Mr. Douglass: Not I.

The President: Well, I know such was the case with a large majority of you in those sections. Where such is the case we know there is an enmity, we know there is a hate. The poor white man, on the other hand, was opposed to the slave and his master; for the colored man and his master combined kept him in slavery, by depriving him of a fair participation in the labor and productions of the rich land of the country.

Don't you know that a colored man in going to hunt a master (as they call it) for the next year preferred hiring to a man who owned slaves rather than to one who did not? I know the fact, at all events. They did not consider it quite as respectable to hire to a man who did not own negroes as to one who

did.

Mr. Douglass: Because he wouldn't be treated as well.

The President: Then that is another argument in favor of what I'm going to say. It shows that the colored man appreciated the slave-owner more highly than he did the man who didn't own slaves. Hence the enmity between the colored man and the nonslaveholders.

The white man was permitted to vote because government was derived from him. He is a part and parcel of the political machinery.

Now, by the rebellion or revolution-and when you come back to the objects of this war, you find that the abolition of slavery was not one of the objects; Congress and the President himself declared that it was waged on our part in order to suppress the rebellion-the abolition of slavery has come as an incident to the suppression of a great rebellion, and as an incident we should give it the proper direction.

The colored man went into this rebellion a slave; by the operation of the rebellion he came out a free man-equal to a free man in any other portion of the country. Then there is a great deal done for him on this point. The non-slaveholder was forced into the rebellion, and was as loyal as those who lived beyond the limits of the State, was carried into it, and his property, and, in a number of instances, the lives of such were sacrificed, and he who has survived has come out of it with nothing gained, but a great deal

lost.

Now, upon a principle of justice, should they be placed in a condition different from what they were before? On the one band, one has gained a great deal; on the other hand, one has lost a great deal, and, in a political point of view, scarcely stands where he did before.

Now, we are talking about where we are going to begin. We have got at the hate that existed between the two races. The query comes up, whether these two races, situated as they were before, without preparation, without time for passion and excitement to be appeased, and without time for the slightest improvement-whether the one should be turned loose upon the other, and be thrown together at the ballot-box with this enmity and hate existing between them. The query arises, if, there, we don't commence a war of races. I think I understand this question; and especially is this the case when you force it upon the people without their consent.

Again, on February 10th, a committee of the Virginia Legislature presented to the President resolutions approving his course, passed by the House of Delegates. In response, President Johnson said:

I repeat, I am gratified to meet you to-day, ex

pressing the principles and announcing the senti ments to which you have given utterance, and I trust that the occasion will long be remembered. I have no doubt that your intention is to carry out and comply with every single principle laid down in the resolutions you have submitted. I know that some are distrustful; but I am of those who have confidence in the judgment-in the integrity—in the intelligence-in the virtue of the great mass of the American people; and having such confidence, I am willing to trust them, and I thank God that we have not yet reached that point where we have lost all confidence in each other.

The spirit of the Government can only be preserved, we can only become prosperous and great as a people, by mutual forbearance and confidence. Upon that faith and that confidence alone can the Government be successfully carried on.

On the cardinal principle of representation to which you refer I will make a single remark. That principle is inherent; it constitutes one of the fundamental elements of this Government. The representatives of the States and of the people should have the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, and those qualifications most unquestionably imply loyalty. He who comes as a representative, having the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution to fit him to take a seat in either of the deliberative bodies which constitute the National Legislature, must necessarily, according to the intention of the Constitution, be a loyal man, willing to abide by and devoted to the Union and the Constitution of the States. He cannot be for the Constitution, he cannot be for the Union, he cannot acknowledge obedience to all the laws, unless he is loyal. When the people send such men in good faith, they are entitled to representation through

them.

In going into the recent rebellion or insurrection against the Government of the United States we erred; and in returning and resuming our relations with the Federal Government, I am free to say that all the responsible positions and places ought to be confined distinctly and clearly to men who are loyal. If there were only five thousand loyal men in a State, or a less number, but sufficient to take charge of the political machinery of the State, those fire thousand men, or the lesser number, are entitled to it, if all the rest should be otherwise inclined. I look upon it as being fundamental that the exercise of political power should be confined to loyal men; and I regard that as implied in the doctrines laid down in these resolutions and in the eloquent address by which they have been accompanied. I may say furthermore, that, after having passed through the great struggle in which we have been engaged, we should be placed upon much more acceptable ground in resuming all our relations to the General Government if we presented men unmistakably and unquestionably loyal to fill the places of power. This being done, I feel that the day is not far distant

I speak confidingly in reference to the great mass of the American people-when they will determine that this Union shall be made whole, and the great right of representation in the councils of the nation be acknowledged.

Gentlemen, that is a fundamental principle. "No taxation without representation" was one of the principles which carried us through the Revolution This great principle will hold good yet; and if we but perform our duty, if we but comply with the spirit of the resolutions presented to me to-day, the American people will maintain and sustain the great doctrines upon which the Government was inauga rated. It can be done, and it will be done; and 1 think that if the effort be fairly and fully made, with forbearance and with prudence, and with discretion and wisdom, the end is not very far distant.

It seems to me apparent that from every consid eration the best policy which could be adopted at