p. 155 | Trust not in Princes

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 16, 1866

“Trust not in Princes.”

“Trust not in princes.” We have been forcibly reminded of the truth of this declaration of the Psalmist, by the late action of some of those who in days past have been accounted princes of the people. We might here name Henry Ward Beecher, Wm. H. Seward and Andrew Johnson.

The first of these has long been an advocate of human rights, and it was generally supposed that he had so thoroughly adopted the principles taught in our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,” that he could never consent to be a party to the oppression of his fellow-men. But this supposition has been at once demolished by his Cleveland letter and his subsequent one explaining it. In the latter he says:

“Neither am I a ‘Johnson man’ in any received meaning of that term. I accept that part of the policy which he favors, but with modification. I have never thought that it would be wise to bring back all the States in a body at once, any more than it would be to keep them all out together. One by one, in due succession, under a practical judgment rather than by a wholesale theoretic rule, I would have them re-admitted. I still think a middle course, between the President's and that of Congress, would be wiser than either, but with this my agreement with the President ends. I have long regretted his ignorance of Northern ideas and sentiments, and I have been astonished and pained at his increasing indiscretions.”

Yet, notwithstanding this, in the former letter he endorses the President's policy, of at once restoring to their former power, the slave-holders and rebels of the South, without any guarantee that they will not trample upon the rights of their former victims, and when it is well known, if this policy prevails by what they have already done, that slavery in fact, though without the name would be the portion of the now liberated slave.

The former principles of Wm. H. Seward, are well known to our readers; his name is linked in history with the sentiment “There is an irrepressible conflict between slavery and freedom,” that one or the other must gain the ascendancy; but now he cannot see why the lion and the lamb should not lay together, nor why the sheep should object to admitting the wolf into the same inclosure with itself. Only a short time ago, Andrew Johnson was heard proclaiming with all his might, “Traitors must take back seats,” “Loyal men must rule the South,” “I will make treason odious,” “If I were President of the United States and found you guilty of treason, I would try you for treason, convict you of treason and hang you for treason.” Such inconsistency—such a repudiation of truth for error, furnishes us a notable commentary on the text, “Trust not in princes.” But while we cannot trust in princes, it is well to remember that we can trust in the name of the Lord of Hosts without fear of being disappointed. It is as true now as in the ages past, “He that trusteth in the Lord shall never be put to shame.”—Christian Press.