THE WAR, AND ITS CAUSE by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 12, 1861

THE WAR, AND ITS CAUSE.

By Uriah Smith

If any are at a loss how to account for the imbecility of this government as thus far manifested in its so-called efforts to put down the rebellion, they cannot fail to learn the reason from the statements given below. Slavery is the cause of the present war, and consequently no efforts can be effective which do not embrace within their purposes the removal of this diabolical iniquity; and yet slavery is persistently ignored on the part of the government as having no bearing on the settlement of this controversy.

It is coming to be widely admitted all over the North that God has a controversy with this nation on account of the sin of slavery; and that the North is now receiving chastisement at his hands for its complicity with this great evil. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this admission is clearly this: That until the North shall cleanse its hands from all the stains of this sin, and take a bold stand of uncompromising opposition to its very existence, and seize upon every opportunity to abolish and crush it out, God cannot make bare his arm nor manifest his power to aid them in the struggle. And what are the facts in the case? On the part of those engaged in defending the cause of the North, slavery seems to be the only thing, as well expressed below, that is regarded as inviolably sacred. That must not be touched at the peril of life. And even now the oppressed bondman who succeeds in escaping from the hell of slavery and reaching the Federal lines, is in some instances relentlessly returned by the union forces, under the sanction of the administration, to his traitorous and rebellious master. If the government, as if not satisfied with the depth of corruption and sin to which it has already sunk, should determine to perpetuate deeds of darkness which were sure to call down upon it the heaviest thunderbolts of Jehovah's wrath, could it take a more effective course than this in which to do it? And while this course is continued, what can be expected but disasters, defeat, and disgrace? And will not the judgment of every upright mind in the land acquiesce in the sentence? Read the following from the N. Y. Independent:

SACREDNESS OF SLAVERY.

"In every compromise upon the subject of slavery, and in all legislation to conciliate the South, property in slaves has been regarded as peculiarly sacred. This tradition still holds good at Washington. If we may credit the following, the Administration, acting through its military officers, entertains the idea that slavery is too holy to be touched, even for the purpose of saving the country:

"A slave belonging to Jeff. Offord, a secessionist of Spencer county, made his escape and delivered himself up at Camp Sherman on our fair grounds. The officers of the camp handed him over to Mr. Dent, our Provost-Marshal, who, under instructions from Gen. Sherman, returned him without reward to his owner."—Louisville Journal.

"If the son of a rebel had escaped, and desired to join our army, how gladly would he have been received! If the horse of a rebel had come within our lines, how quickly he would have been seized and used for our purposes! But the slave is not treated either as a person or as property. The vilest institution upon which the sun ever shone, the primal cause of the rebellion, and the one great iniquity for which God is now dealing with the nation, is treated by the Administration as if it were the only really sacred thing in the land—not to be touched but on pain of death! Is it any wonder that we are defeated in our plans, and that our hosts stand still as if paralyzed by some invisible power?"

The readers of the Review will recognize in the above the fulfillment of a prophecy that relates to the present time. The closing sentence of the extract is worthy of double emphasis: "Is it any wonder that we are defeated in our plans, and that our hosts stand still as if paralyzed by some invisible power?"

But the people are astonished and perplexed at the present state of things. The feelings by which they are beginning to be agitated are well expressed in the following:

THE LESSONS OF THE LAST WEEK.

"The sad disaster to our troops at Edwards' Ferry, the closing of the Potomac by the rebels, and the continued inaction of the national army of the Potomac, are provoking the indignant protest of the press and the people against military blunderers and managing civilians. The Washington correspondent of The Watchman and Reflector thus comments upon the latter:

"The people are staggered; they hear that the Cabinet is divided, that the magnificent army which they have equipped is to remain inactive till winter forces them to retirement, in order that opportunity may be afforded for moral suasion and diplomatic negotiation. Is this true? Are these things possible? Yet such are the reports in private circles and on change. If they are true, then the Administration are divorcing themselves, mensa et toro, from the people. They have no confidence in moral suasion or negotiations. They believe in artillery, musketry, and cavalry, as the only means of re-establishing the power of the government over the seceding States. They will not submit to the army retiring to winter quarters without trying to do something more than threaten the lines of the enemy, unless the gravest military reasons exist for such an act. If so, they will acquiesce in the painful necessity. But if it is for state reasons, then they protest against the policy as ruinous, suicidal, and cowardly.

"If President Lincoln has not a Cabinet who are a unit on the resolution to maintain the Government and restore its authority by force of arms, then the people of the United States expect him to form a Cabinet on such a basis. They will pardon mistakes of judgment, but not of principle. They have enough of forbearance, enough of diplomacy, enough, yea, ad nauseam, of compromise, and now they want firm, stern, direct fighting. If the Administration think that we of the North and West, with our twenty millions, cannot, by fighting, establish the power of the Government in the rebel States, with only twelve millions, then let it frankly say so and resign, and thus give place to men who believe in the contrary, and are willing to try the force of arms.

"Nothing has given more sorrow to the people of the North than the reports of difference of opinion between Gen. McClellan and certain members of the Cabinet as to the propriety of an advance at this time. They have no confidence in the military ability of the Cabinet; that was destroyed at Bull Run. They have all confidence in the youthful McClellan. They may be disappointed, but they are willing to risk an army such as the world has seldom seen on his judgment, and they demand for him responsibility, a fair chance, a free field, and no interference by civilians."

We cannot forbear presenting another extract on this subject. It is somewhat lengthy, but it will repay perusal, as it shows the view that people of other countries take of our national affairs, and the just estimate they put upon the object for which this government is avowedly contending. And it seems to us that a sober consideration of this point is as well calculated to cool the ardor of the lovers of liberty in the North, as it is that of the "Christian Philanthropists of England," in the cause that now agitates this nation. We find the testimony in the Oberlin Evangelist, as follows:

WHAT THE CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPISTS OF ENGLAND THINK OF US.

"Rev. T. Goadby represents a large class of English Baptists. . . . He says:

" 'God has rent asunder your Federation because of your idolatry—your idolatry of the Union and the dollar, and your sacrifice of freedom and the poor African to these gods, as if they were the gods which brought you up out of the Egypt of British bondage. Here I see the hand of God.' "

THE NORTH RESPONSIBLE FOR SLAVERY—COMPROMISES AND UNION WORSHIP.

"Tell me not that you in the North are innocent. Are you not responsible for the sins of the government about which your boast is that it springs from the people, and rests on their sovereign will as its sure and only foundation? Have you nothing to do with slavery in the District of Columbia? Has not the 'Union' been your idol? Have not your great men bowed down before it? The noble and world-honored founders of the Republic unhappily set you the example. They compromised principle for the 'Union' when they gave to Negroes representation as persons only through their masters who held them as goods and chattels; and they compromised again when, omitting the word 'slave' in the clause, they yet laid in the Constitution the foundation for a fugitive slave law, an enactment at variance both with the precepts of God's Word and rights of humanity. Before this idol a long line of Presidents have bowed down, and mighty men like Daniel Webster, who aspired to the Presidency. Before this idol, Seward, the once uncompromising and eloquent champion of freedom, fell down, when, in the Senate, he virtually urged the South to stay in the Union for the security of their own peculiar institution; and when he said, as he did at the outbreak of the revolt, that all efforts must now be turned to 'save the Union,' as freedom was always in the Union. At that same shrine President Lincoln pays homage in his inaugural address, and repeats that homage in his special message. As one reads his elevation of the Union above independence and above American liberty, one cannot but ask—'What, is not righteousness older than any union? Is not God's charter of liberty for every son of man, of whatsoever clime or color, older and more sacred than any human political confederation under the sun?'

"When Mrs. Stowe chides the English philanthropists for their lack of enthusiasm in our struggle for freedom, Mr. G. replies:

" 'The South, in her infatuation, is doing all she can to destroy slavery by withdrawing it from under the powerful ægis of the Union; and all that your politicians, all that your brave soldiers in the North at present propose to do, is to sustain the Government and "save the Union." Knowing what that Union is—union with slaveholders, and compromise with slavery, we cannot for the life of us be enthusiastic in its behalf. It exerts no irresistible spell over us as with you, calling up memories of patriotic battle-fields, and the heroic era of your country. We admire it, and respect it, in its political bearings, as the legacy of great and good men to mankind, but we don't believe free government would perish with it, or with the dissolution of any other political union under heaven; and we have such strong faith in God, and such firm confidence in the Anglo-Saxon race, that we believe the freemen of America could, to-day, construct another Union even more glorious than this, because without any stain of slavery upon it, and construct it with less difficulty than the fathers of your Republic encountered.

" 'I repeat, then, that we in England are as true as ever to the cause of freedom, and as ready as ever to make sacrifices for it; and that we, as much as ever, love and sympathize with our brethren in America, brethren as we are in language and common descent, in faith and common destiny. But in the preservation of your Union with slaveholders, in the uprising of a great and free people against a confederacy of slaveholders without a definite policy of emancipation, in the lavish expenditure of blood and treasure for a political confederation which has fostered slavery for more than half a century, which would find means to foster it again, and, at all events, would give its strength as a confederation, as it has given it before, for the protection and security of slavery whereit already exists, we do not see the cause of freedom pure and simple, and we cannot discover occasion for enthusiastic demonstrations of applause. We do see, however, reason for hope and prayer. No doubt God, in his providence, will, if you persist in it, overrule even the bloody struggle for good; and from thousands of Christian hearts in England prayers go up to heaven that He may so interpose.

" 'In the war as now conducted, we can discover no direct and unmistakable effort to purge the Union—no definite anti-slavery struggle. It is the old "Union" that you are seeking to maintain, and the position of things which the ballot-box of November introduced, that professedly you are aiming to restore. That this is all at present contemplated—even if the fatal mistake of civil war first, and then conciliation and compromise afterward, is not committed—facts and words sufficiently show. The slaves that escape into the Federal camp are not liberated; the slaves in the District of Columbia are not set free; there is not a word about the poor African in the message, nor as yet, in the first debates in the new Congress. The once "everlasting" Negro is thrown overboard.

" 'Nevertheless should events, under the all-controlling hand of Heaven, receive a new impulse, and take a new direction; should you see it practicable to commit yourselves openly before the world, not merely to the "Union" in all its integrity, and the non-extension of slavery, but to a well-considered policy of emancipation, as may God grant you may; should Secretary Seward, with the President, and Congress, and the people to back him, come forward in 1861, as he did in 1850, and boldly say—"I think it wrong to hold men in bondage at any time, and under any circumstances, I think it right and just, therefore, to abolish slavery when we have the power at any time, at all times, under any circumstances." "For the performance of such a duty, the first time and the first occasion which offers is the right one;"—should you with no uncertain voice, in no equivocal terms, "proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants hereof;" instead of ringing the old cracked bell of the "Union;" then, letters, speeches, resolutions at crowded public meetings, expressive of fervent sympathy, would pour in upon you thick and fast; then, "with a gigantic throb athwart the sea," you would feel our hearts beating strong and high in union with yours; then would rise up, not from England only, but from the whole civilized world, the shout of a great multitude, "as the voice of many waters, and of mighty thunderings," bidding you a hearty and enthusiastic God speed in your work.

'I am sincerely yours, 'THOMAS GOADBY.'

These are sound words and faithful. History will take them up as her verdict on the present war.

The American leaders seem to be seized with infatuation on the subject of slavery, the "primal cause" of this disastrous war; and an imbecility, as unaccountable as it is aggravating, to the masses in the North, has been the characteristic of most of the movements thus far in behalf of the Union. The student of prophecy alone reads and understands the present state of things. He sees that when God is chastising a nation for a particular iniquity, he cannot put forth his hand to build up that nation, so long as it is morally certain that the power thus restored, would only be exerted to foster the very iniquity which called down His displeasure; and he reads further the unequivocal declaration of the prophet that the winds shall be held till the servants of God are sealed. Rev. vii, 1-3.