Meanwhile, what attitude toward the war of the American Revolution were Methodists to take? Wesley at the time of the Declaration of Independence said it was an unjustifiable rebellion made by hypocrites-- "wherever these brawlers for liberty govern, there is the vilest slavery." Only later, in 1784, was Wesley able to speak of "a very uncommon train of providences" that led to the independence of Britain's North American colonies. During the war only Francis Asbury, of all Wesley's missionaries, remained in America, and he spent 1778-1780 in hiding because he could not take the oath of loyalty that would have committed him to support the use of violence. Most American-born Methodist preachers favored independence but differed in their own willingness to bear arms.
Thomas Ware abjured King George and took up arms against him. Jesse Lee allowed himself to be drafted, but when he refused to train with a gun was jailed for a time and then assigned to noncombatant service driving wagons. Freeborn Garrettson was a conscientious objector.
Different attitudes toward fighting, the lack of strong leadership while Asbury was in hiding, and the absence of a sacramental ministry, all left American Methodism in a state of crisis when the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. In spite of the crisis, however, there were 15,000 Methodists served by 83 traveling preachers in 1784, indicating that American Methodism had sailed with the tide of pietism to significant fortune.
So now, just as the new nation was being constituted, it was time to constitute a church. But before the story of the founding of the Methodist Episcopal Church can be told, we must return to the two men who embraced in Long's Barn, William Otterbein and Martin Boehm.