In 1879 and 1880,0 00
In 1880 and 1881,$2,600 00
In 1881 and 1882,19,453 75
In 1882 and 1883,26,847 25
Total receipts during quadrennium,$437,986 89
Appropriations for schools among whites,48,901 00
Appropriations for schools among colored,$389,085 89

“The whites received a little less than one-ninth of the receipts, and a little less than one-eighth as much as the colored people.”

It is to be remembered that “the schools among the whites” were not constitutionally eligible to aid from the Freedmen’s Aid Society until after the General Conference of 1880; that the work had been chiefly confined to its then legitimate channel, the colored work, and, of course, appropriations to the work among the colored people began with the work of the society. Viewed from that point, another phase of appropriations appears.

Resolutions came rather briskly and presenting many different phases of the question. On May 12th, Rev. C. O. Fisher, of the Savannah Conference, presented the following resolution, signed by himself and twenty-two others, which, on motion, was adopted:

“Resolved, That the General Conference hereby confirms and reaffirms the opinion previously expressed that ‘color is no bar to any right or privilege of office or membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church,’ but we recognize the propriety of such administration as will hereafter, as heretofore, secure the largest concession to individual preferences on all questions involving merely the social relations of its members.”

Now, the above resolution in some way or other, was afterward the cause of no little dispute as to who was the author of it, and who signed it. There followed some discussion, through the papers, between Dr. Marshall W. Taylor and Dr. Fisher as to it. Like Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it seems to have had no parents at all, “but jus’ growed up.” Its purport, some declare, was not indorsed by all who signed it. It, however, was a tally for the conservative element, whether so intended or not.

Report No. 3 of Committee on Freedmen’s Aid and Work in the South was adopted May 22d, as follows:

“Your Committee on Freedmen’s Aid and Work in the South have carefully considered the several memorials referred to us, involving the question of separate or mixed schools for the accommodation of our colored and white membership in the South, and as the result of our deliberations present the following:

“It is an historical fact, highly honorable to the Methodist Episcopal Church, that she has been the constant friend of the common people, and especially of the colored man.

“The Freedmen’s Aid Society, organized for the purpose of aiding in the education and elevation of the freedmen, is the unanswerable proof of our friendship to them in the hour of their need. Twenty-four institutions of learning—academies, seminaries, colleges, and theological schools—established and maintained among them at a cost of more than $1,250,000 for the benefit of the colored people, constitute a magnificent demonstration of our devotion, which requires no elaboration and admits of no denial.