Is the Nation Guilty? by Jas. Sawyer

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 23, 1862

Is the Nation Guilty?

By Jas. Sawyer

FAR be it from my wish to become involved in fanaticism; nor would I attempt to run clear of the censure of what is commonly called conservatism. If I err in setting forth the relation that the United States hold to the institution of African slavery, let it be an error of ignorance.

Many of our ancestors came to America on account of the religious persecution in the Old World. They early watered the holy plant of our religion here on the Western continent. The rock-bound shores of New England received the feet of the Pilgrim Fathers, and North America became an asylum for the oppressed. Even while the principles of religious liberty became widely disseminated, the colonists were loyal to Great Britain. They contributed as faithful subjects to the maintenance of the crown.

But Great Britain became outrageously oppressive by her acts of parliament. The colonists appealed to the court of heaven for a redress of grievances. They promised God they would be just. They entered into a solemn compact or covenant with the great Jehovah in 1776, after this manner: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created free and equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," &c. Then the mother country waged a cruel war to force them to submission. She wished to exercise tyranny over them. They promised God if he would deliver them from this yoke of bondage they would be just, and sustain human rights and civil liberty. God did deliver them.

Ten years passed, and the representatives of a happy people met to decide upon a plan of government. Among the names of the delegates to that federal convention are found those who stood high in point of virtue, sound sense, and science. With others alike eminent, were assembled Washington, Randolph, Franklin, Hamilton, and Madison. After a session of three and a half months a constitution was adopted.

Great was the struggle to digest an instrument fraught with so few verbal errors. Its terms sounded well on the American ear, but its intention opened unto intrigue. One portion sacrificed justice to another's self-interest, and another left an opportunity of doing well for a system of expediency. The constitution called all human beings persons, but it meant that a part should be slaves. It was a lamb in its words, and a dragon in its meaning.

Luther Martin, a delegate from Maryland to the convention which drafted the constitution of the United States, says, "The delegation from Georgia and South Carolina said their States would never agree to a system which put it in the power of the general government to prevent the importation of slaves. A committee of one from each State was chosen by ballot to take this part of the system under consideration, and endeavor to agree upon some report to reconcile those States. The staple and commercial States had a proposition referred to the same committee, to wit: No navigation act shall be passed without the assent of two-thirds of the members present in each house."

He further says, "This committee, of which I had the honor to be a member, met and took under consideration the subjects committed to them. I found the Eastern States, notwithstanding their aversion to slavery, were very willing to indulge the Southern States, at least with a temporary liberty to prosecute the slave trade; provided the Southern States would in their turn gratify them by laying no restriction on navigation acts. The committee agreed upon a report that the general government was to be prohibited from preventing the importation of slaves for a limited time. This report was adopted, but not without considerable opposition. It was argued in that convention in language like this: 'That we had appealed to the Supreme Being for his assistance as the God of freedom who would not but approve our efforts to preserve the rights which he had imparted to his creatures; that now when we had scarcely risen from our knees from supplicating his aid and protection in forming our government—a government formed pretendedly on the principles of liberty—in that government to have a provision not only putting it out of its power to restrain and prevent the slave-trade, even encouraging that most infamous traffic, by giving the States power and influence in the Union in proportion as they cruelly and wantonly sport with the rights of their fellow creatures, ought to be considered a solemn mockery of, and insult to, that God whose protection we had then implored, and could not fail to hold us up in detestation, and render us contemptible to every true friend of liberty in the world. It was said it ought to be considered that national crimes can only be, and frequently are, punished in this world by national punishments, and that the continuance of the slave-trade, and this giving it a national sanction and encouragement, ought to be considered as justly exposing us to the displeasure and vengeance of Him who is equally Lord of all and who views with equal eye the poor African slave and his American master.'"

Allowing the slave-trade, introduced the most inhuman system of traffic. The government itself afterward declares the African slave-trade piracy. But slave-traders often escaped the vigilance of national war-vessels. Judge ye whether the nation became hypocritical then.

Imported slaves had soon increased so that more territory was required for their propagation. This exigency called for another sacrifice at the shrine of slavery; and what is now the State of Missouri was given to strengthen that peculiar institution which prevented phraseology sanctions in the ninth section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States. Many dreaded the consequences of that compromise. The contest for freedom was terrible, but not in blood. But government yields. A broad expanse of territory is consigned to serfdom.

The serpent which has its coils now around the body begins to crush. Those persons that constitutional interpreters called property, began to run away from their masters. How plausible that a nation should protect the property of her subjects. Revenue Cutters, United States marshals and magistrates, must take care of our property, cries one section of the country. You shall have our care, responds all sections. The serpent now begins to push its fangs into its victim. One section say their property gets among the Indians and are sheltered in the swamps and sacred hiding-places in Florida, and nothing but blood-hounds and arms will avail us. The government responds by getting back the slaves at the expense of millions, and then advises the Indians to move further westward. Do not the annals of my country vouch for the assertion? Ye of ready memory, deny it if you can.

The serpent which now enjoys one victim, gets hungry and seeks another. Texas, of large dimensions, helps stop its insatiate maw.

The serpent now gets aggravated because another (Mexico) interferes, and wallows in the blood of a new victim. Shall we drop the curtain now? Shall we tell of it in Gath? Other shames are too common. Withhold them not. This nation's sins must rise up in judgment against her. Shall a private citizen withhold the warning? Where are the watchmen? Do they know the hour of night?

Supreme judges get charmed, and the whole area of freedom is bartered away to a sort of servile despot. The unalienable rights of my sable friend must not be protected. Men must go hungry; the naked must not be covered. They crucify my Saviour. Conscience must be bound. A fugitive-slave law clogs me with fines, confinement, and a dungeon, when my hand is raised in support of the compact our ancestors entered into with Almighty God.

That awful day of national punishment will surely come. Are you ready for the conflict? Are your loins girded for battle? Who is your deliverer? Is God your pavilion? Are his arms your mighty battlement? The hosts of hell shall not prevail against you then.

But is there no mercy for the government? None but in repentance toward God. The nation must withdraw her aid from the system of slavery. Other iniquities are registered against her, but a sorrow for that alone may allay the indignation for a little moment.

Statesmen and politicians may assert that the people of the North are not responsible for the monstrous growth and curse of slavery; they may say that England forced it upon us, &c. Is that more than a fable to lull their hardened consciences? Trust it not.

Great men of this mighty republic have required the full amount of brick with no straw save the stubble from the field—like the taskmasters of Egypt. Ye have forgotten your brother in bonds as bound with him. Ye have cast your suffrages for ambitious men who have hugged the delusive monster of slavery, and now you must grapple with the victim yourself. Will you be humbled? Let your garments be sackcloth. Pray for a little respite until the servants of God be sealed, and then as loyal subjects you may enjoy everlasting fruition in the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ.

JAS. SAWYER.

Coopersville, Mich.