onward, the Methodist Church in America was divided over the question of how much authority the congregants should have to select their own preachers, and how much authority preachers should have to select their own assignments, rather than leaving the authority to make these decisions solely in the power of the church's bishops. Sneathen always took the Republican side, favoring power over these decisions being vested in the laity and ministers rather than the bishops. Eventually the Methodist Church divided over this issue, one side becoming the Methodist Episcopal Church and the other the Methodist Protestant Church. Mr. Snethen was one of the founding fathers of the Methodist Protestant Church. Although his views on lay representation were opposed to those of Asbury, the two men remained on good terms. Sneathen delivered a eulogy of Asbury following the latter's death in 1816. That same year, Snethen ran for a seat in the U S House of Representatives from the Third Congressional District of Maryland on the Federalist party ticket, but lost the election. Later years In 1829, financial reversals and moral compulsions led Sneathen and his wife to sell their farm in Maryland and emancipate their slaves. The family moved to Merom, Indiana, . A year and a half later both Snethen's wife and one of his daughters were dead, probably from milk sickness caused by snakeroot poisoning After his wife's death, Sneathen returned to itinerant preaching for the church, traveling extensively. He went back to New York for a time and lived in Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio for extended periods. In 1844 Sneathen was called to preside over the new Snethen School for Young Ministers in Iowa City, Iowa. While there, he officiated as Chaplain to the Iowa State Territorial Legislature during its session that year. he was then named headmaster of the school In 1845, while traveling from Cincinnati to Iowa, he stopped in Princeton, Indiana to visit his two daughters. After a short illness, Sneathen died there on May 30, 1845 at age 75. He was buried next to his wife and three of their children in Warnock Cemetery. References A Concise History of the Methodist Protestant Church from Its Origin: Embracing the Circumstances of the SUSPENSION of the Northern and Western Conferences in 1858, the Entire Career of the Methodist Church, and the REUNION of the Two Branches in 1877. With Biographical Sketches of Several Leading