p. 192 | Grave Apprehensions

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 13, 1878

“Grave Apprehensions.”

THE papers are still burdened with comments upon the threatening aspect of our political and social affairs. Among all the utterances of this kind, perhaps the following paragraph from The Advance of June 6, presents as good a general view of the situation in condensed form as could be given:—

“Every observant person looks upon the present aspect of our political affairs with grave apprehension. Nothing is plainer than that the Tilden-Potter plot, if it means anything, means revolution. It is a conspiracy that looks beyond the present congress, to the next one, which, it is expected, will have a Democratic majority in both houses, when tactics employed successfully to oust Gov. Packard from the governorship of Louisiana are hoped to be equally effective in ousting President Hayes. But apart from that, there is, as the venerable statesman Thurlow Weed says in a recent letter, ‘imminent danger that this movement may stimulate other bad elements into overt action. Communists, Trades-Unionists, Agrarians, and Repudiators stand at rest waiting their opportunity. There is too much reason to apprehend that Mr. Potter has given these bad elements their long-hoped-for opportunity. There seemed just now gleams of hope that business would revive. The unemployed and the destitute were beginning to look for better times. They have endured privation with exemplary patience. But there is a point beyond which endurance ceases to be a virtue. Whenever that point is reached, and the Communists are enabled to beguile the really industrious but unemployed laborers into their organizations, they will become as dangerous and powerful as they are wicked and destructive. The atmosphere is charged with political electricity. If these explosive trains should be ignited by Mr. Potter’s match, those with whom he is closely connected will be among the first and largest sufferers.’”