About that "Grave Charge."
By J. H. W.
As a general thing the editor and correspondents of the Review have spoken in very respectful terms of President Lincoln. This I hold to be right. All of the Seventh-day Adventists, so far as my knowledge extends, who voted at the last Presidential election, voted for him. No one could have shared our sympathies more deeply than he has, in his trying position. It has been, and I trust will be, our effort to look at things candidly and impartially; to state facts as they are, and to make the applications to the fulfillment of prophecy as we think fitting and just. When I read the comments of the Providence Post, as quoted by Bro. Foote, I did not regard them favorably, as I thought they were calculated to carry a wrong impression. The fact that no Spiritualist has been placed under arrest, admits of quite a different construction from that placed upon it by the Post. It is well known that Spiritualists claim to be reformers: and in the free States they are anti-slavery, with few exceptions: and therefore could not be expected to have any peculiar sympathy with this pro-slavery rebellion. Of course they would not be likely to incur liablity to arrest. This is the construction I have placed upon the fact referred to, and I yet think I am right in this. Beyond this, I do not sympathize with the fling made at the President by the Post concerning arrests. The President is a sworn officer; by the suffrages of the people great responsibilities have been placed upon him. No loyal man, who prizes the privileges which our government confers upon its citizens, can find it in his heart to complain of the President for arresting a few individuals who were loudly talking treason under the protection of our government. A government of any value at all is entitled to respect, and recent events in New York show that we are not free from danger from enemies of our rights, even in the North. But there are other facts that claim our attention. Slavery is not the only enemy of right and truth with which we have and shall have to contend. The "sure word of prophecy" gives us to understand that Spiritualism will do much to give form and character to the conflict between truth and error which is now impending. In this we think we cannot be mistaken. Under its influence the world will settle more deeply into a system of false worship now prevailing to a great ex-tent. (Rev. xiii, xiv.) Under its influence the kings of the earth will be deceived to their final overthrow. (Rev. xvi.) Gov. Tallmadge, in the introduction to the "Healing of the nations," remarks that Spiritualism will yet become popular, and then nothing will be able to resist its influence. In many places it is already popular, and claims among its adherents the first in intelligence, in station, and even in professions of piety. Many clergymen have become its open advocates; while others, eminent for learning, are said to be favorably inclined to it, which we can readily believe from the tenor of their popular discourses. I think in this manner it is preparing for an outbreak that will greatly astonish those who have not observed its progress. Sometime since I read in a Spiritualist paper published in New York, an account of the progress of Spiritualism, claiming as its adherents most of the great men of the nation. Amongst the names there given I remember those of B. F. Wade, J. R. Giddings, Wm. H. Seward, Charles Sumner, &c. About a year since, in a congregation in Iowa, I referred to this article, adding that I had much respect for President Lincoln, and hoped they had not got him. A well known Spiritualist then present assured me that Lincoln was a Spiritualist. Since that I conversed with a Methodist minister, who said, that while in Chicago, he met with a female lecturer, who told him she was personally acquainted with Mr. Lincoln; that when in Springfield she made his house her stopping place, and that he was a spiritualist. This minister was one of a committee chosen to investigate the phenomena in Cincinnati; he had paid considerable attention to the subject, and he said he had no doubt her statement was true. It has been currently stated in the papers many times. Several accounts of "circles" have been published, said to have met at Washington, where the President was present. Now if friend Summerbell, or any other one, can give reliable information in regard to these statements, I for one would be much gratified. From the best information I can get I am led to believe that the most prominent statesmen in the land, President included, with some of our leading Generals, are spiritualists. If these things are so, they are certainly worthy of remark, as a sign of the times. And a few errors in detailing circumstances, or wrong conclusions drawn by political editors will neither destroy the facts, nor their significance. I hope some one whose opportunities are better than mine will ascertain how far the claims of the spiritualist papers above referred to are correct. It is due to the individuals, as well as to the cause we advocate, that we be able to speak advisedly on this subject. If any one can furnish the desired information he will confer a favor on me, as I doubt not he will on all our brethren.