Both the petitioners and community were astonished when the court refused to vacate the order, and the only recourse was an appeal to the Supreme Court of Missouri on a writ of error. It may not be improper to state in this place that Judge Gilchrist Porter, then on the bench of that Judicial District, presided; and Thos. J. C. Fagg, then Judge of the Louisiana Court of Common Pleas, was counsel for the M. E. Church, North, in his own court.
The cause was argued July 24, ’62, and the petition overruled. The petitioners filed a bill of exceptions and the case went up to the Supreme Court.
The case was not heard in the Supreme Court until January 10, 1866, when the judgment of the court below was reversed and the case dismissed upon the ground of irregularity and informality.
As this case may involve several legal points of importance to the Church, it may be proper to transfer so much of the decision and rulings of the court to these pages as will be of general application.
S. S. Allen, Esq., for plaintiffs in error, submitted the following points of law, and the court ruled accordingly:
“1. The Church, by means of its preacher in charge and Quarterly Conference, had full and ample power to fill vacancies in its board of trustees (see ‘Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church,’ p. 254).
“2. Over the Church, as such, the temporal courts of this country most clearly have no jurisdiction, except to protect them, and to protect the civil rights of others, and to preserve the public peace, none of which were necessary in this case (see Baptist Church in Hartford, vs. Wittnell, 3 Paige, Ch. 301; Sawyer vs. Cipperly, 7 Paige, 281 etc.)
“3. There were no vacancies in the board when the court below acted, said vacancies having been duly filled by the preacher and Conference long before the court acted. (See ‘Minutes of the Conference.’)
“Dyer & Campbell for defendants in error.
“Lovelace, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.”