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ART. I. This Society shall be called “THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
ASSOCIATION.”
ART. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct
Christian missionary and educational operations, and diffuse a
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries
which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent
fields of effort.
ART. III. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the
practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds,
may become a member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty
dollars, a life member; provided that children and others who have
not professed their faith may be constituted life members without
the privilege of voting.
ART. IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of
September, October or November, for the election of officers and
the transaction of other business, at such time and place as shall
be designated by the Executive Committee.
ART. V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular
officers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting,
and of delegates from churches, local missionary societies,
and other co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one
representative.
ART. VI. The officers of the Association shall be a President,
Vice-Presidents, Corresponding Secretaries, (who shall also keep
the records of the Association,) Treasurer, Auditors, and an
Executive Committee of not less than twelve members.
ART. VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting
and disbursing of funds; the appointing, counseling, sustaining and
dismissing missionaries and agents; the selection of missionary
fields; and, in general, the transaction of all such business
as usually appertains to the executive committees of missionary
and other benevolent societies; the Committee to exercise no
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the missionaries; and its doings
to be subject always to the revision of the annual meeting, which
shall, by a reference mutually chosen, always entertain the
complaints of any aggrieved agent or missionary; and the decision
of such reference shall be final.
The Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all vacancies
occurring among the officers between the regular annual meetings;
to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature for acts of
incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any is given, of all
officers, agents, missionaries, or others in the employment of the
Society; to make provision, if any, for disabled missionaries, and
for the widows and children of such as are deceased; and to call,
in all parts of the country, at their discretion, special and
general conventions of the friends of missions, with a view to the
diffusion of the missionary spirit, and the general and vigorous
promotion of the missionary work.
Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for
transacting business.
ART. VIII. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to
the principles of this society, and wishing to appoint and sustain
missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the
agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.
ART. IX. No amendment shall be made to this Constitution without
the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular
annual meeting; nor unless the proposed amendment has been
submitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee in
season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if
so submitted) in the regular official notifications of the meeting.