“I have had one thought about our citizens in general. I wish they would lay aside the use of wine and strong drink in general. God would suddenly and certainly work. I am determined not to go out of my way on that matter for five hundred presidents and all the bishops in the world. I am sincerely thine.”
(Francis Asbury, 30 Dec. 1802, Letter to George Robert, Pastor of Light Street Church in Baltimore)
In 1784 John Wesley commissioned Francis Asbury to establish the Methodist Church in America.