Not a Politician by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 14, 1882

Not a Politician.

By Editor

Now that politics and religion are so blended in the canvass, and the “venerable day of the sun” is sought to be enforced on all, even to the exclusion of the Sabbath of the Lord, we, as observers of the true or Bible Sabbath, consider it our duty to speak out and let the people know the reasons of our faith.

In advocating the claims of the Bible Sabbath we have been misunderstood, sometimes misrepresented, accused of uniting with liquor sellers and abetting the vilest crimes. And now that a point of our religious faith, an institution of the Creator of all, which we highly reverence, is opposed by a large class of politicians in their efforts to exalt an institution which has no foundation in the Bible, we expect to be misunderstood again, and it will be claimed that we are gratifying a party preference in our course. To place ourselves right before the people, we think it proper to briefly state what has been our political experience.

In our early boyhood we entered a printing-office and we were thus brought up in the midst of political newspapers. About that time, President Jackson vetoed the United States Bank, which caused the political contests to become very heated. We took the side of Jackson, and so continued for years. We were editing a Democratic paper in Sauk Co., Wis., at the time when the “Fugitive-slave Bill” was passed by Congress. That action was very displeasing to us. Our sympathies then passed over to the “Free Soil Party.” Soon after this we accepted the religious faith which we now hold, and as we were not close bound to any political party, we ignored politics entirely and cast no vote. We continued thus till the war broke out in 1861, when we renewed our interest in the affairs of the nation, and voted with the Republican party. We voted for Grant, Hayes, and Garfield. But we took no active part in politics, and in our connection with the SIGNS OF THE TIMES for the last four years, have found some of our warmest friends in the Democratic party. Our paper takes no cognizance of politics, being of a purely religious character. Its circulation is quite large in some parts of the Southern States. Yet we have never tried to hide the fact that our personal sympathies were decidedly with the Republican party.

With the most kindly feelings for that body we went to Sacramento. But there we were pleading for a principle higher than politics, and we took particular pains to declare that we did not go as a politician. It was our hope, and the object of our endeavor, to see the State Convention take such a liberal view of the Sunday question as was taken by the County Convention of the Republicans in Sacramento. We did not demand any abatement of the Sunday enforcement further than to ask an exemption from penalties of those who conscientiously keep the seventh-day Sabbath. This was ignored; and a plank of “glittering generalities” adopted, which could be construed liberally toward almost anybody except those who by right should be exempted.

We think the Convention made a great mistake. It was evidently the desire of the Committee to conciliate the interests which could command the votes. This in politics is to be looked for. But we think they did not act wisely. So far as we can judge by the papers, they failed to satisfy the various interests represented in the Convention. It looks to us like a case of masterly indecision! An effort to catch all, as a result pleasing none.

We will only say this more, that the request of Colonel Babcock was modest, and if the party were really, as it is professedly, opposed to the expression passed at San Jose against “sumptuary laws,” it could not do less than grant the request of those whom Colonel Babcock represented. If any difference between the two parties in regard to “sumptuary laws” it does not appear in the platforms. But we forbear. We have no faith in politics, and only wish that religion might be kept separated from them, and left to be advocated in the pulpit instead of on the stump.