THE SOUTHERN REBELLION by O. Nichols

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 16, 1861

THE SOUTHERN REBELLION.

By O. Nichols

We feel somewhat anxious to know what will be the effect of the southern rebellion upon the future government of the United States. Has it anything to do with the fulfilling of the prophecy of the two-horned beast—"He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him?"

It is now admitted that the minions of southern aristocracy and slave interests have dictated the national government for more than forty years; and for at least thirty years, they have had a fixed purpose to overthrow "American Republicanism," as "built upon by the fathers." J. C. Calhoun said in Washington forty-nine years ago, that the aristocracy of the slave States would rule the Federal government; and if the time came that they could not rule the nation, then they would secede.

The first victory over the nation was the enactment of the Missouri compromise in 1820, which admitted slavery into territories south of Mason and Dixon's line.

Ex-president Jefferson said in a letter to Lafayette and others, that the "Missouri question was a trick of hypocrisy, got up under a false front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view of producing a geographical division of parties, which might insure them their future presidents. The people of the north went blindfold into the snare." He called it "the eclipse of Federalism." In another letter he said, "I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. A geographical line co-inciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper, until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to eternal discord."

The above views of Mr. Jefferson and Calhoun are now facts. The dragonic spirit of this nation has been in the ascendancy for many years.

The two horns—the civil and ecclesiastical rulers—like a lamb represented the true characteristic of the fathers of American Republicanism. The government under Washington's administration was characterized by acts of justice and judgment, symbolical features of the christian character. See Jer. xxiii, 5. It has been said that the foundation of American Republicanism was a hypocrisy, because many of the fathers were slaveholders, and the minions of the slave interests have maintained their cause. But it should not be forgotten that the American revolution, in the south as in the north, was conducted upon the principle of the equal rights of man, to prevent the extension of slavery and to mitigate its evils.

Ex-president Monroe declared in the debates of the convention for altering the constitution of Virginia, in A. D. 1829—"Virginia has always declared herself in favor of the equal rights of man. The revolution was conducted upon this principle. At that time there was a slavish population in Virginia. It was the doctrine of equal rights that brought us together in the revolutionary war. Virginia did all that was in her power to do, to prevent the extension of slavery, and to mitigate its evils."—Southern Platform.

Concerning the character of the legislature under Washington's administration, judge Marshal of Virginia, the former chief justice of the United States, declared, towards the close of his life, "That for several years after the revolution, he had not entertained the suspicion that a legislature could act otherwise than from the purest regard to the public welfare. The same visions were abundant when the constitution of the United States was adopted, and Washington inaugurated president.

O. NICHOLS.

Dorchester, Mass.