In mid-1864 problems related to the war accelerated. Under the draft law passed by Congress on March 3, 1863, there was provision that those conscientiously opposed to bearing arms could be assigned "to duty in the hospitals, or to the care of freedmen," or could, by the payment of $300, be excused from the draft ("The Views of Seventh-day Adventists Relative to Bearing Arms," pp. 3,4). Under these liberal provisions, Seventh-day Adventists generally, if drafted, paid $300 and were excused from serving. In the light of the counsel given by God through Ellen White, it seemed consistent to take this course and thus escape the many problems of military service. But the law was amended on July 4, 1864; the $300 commutation provision, was revoked, but with Quakers seemingly in mind, the amendment declared:
"Nothing contained in this Act is to be construed to alter, or in any way affect the Law relative to those conscientiously opposed to bearing arms."--The Review and Herald, 4 July, 1864.
This meant that the $300 commutation provision now applied only to those officially recognized as noncombatants. Up to this point Seventh-day Adventists, although firmly of that persuasion, had not publicly declared this fact, nor was their position officially recognized. The church must act quickly to obtain official noncombatant status. Church leaders, working through proper channels, took immediate steps to achieve this. The first step was to gain the endorsement of the governor of Michigan, Austin Blair. Hence the following communication was taken to him August 3, 1864, by the three members of the General Conference Committee:
We the undersigned, Executive Committee of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, respectfully beg leave to present for your consideration the following statements:
The denomination of Christians calling themselves Seventh-day Adventists, taking the Bible as their rule of faith and practice, are unanimous in their views that its teachings are contrary to the spirit and practice of war; hence, they have ever been conscientiously opposed to bearing arms. If there is any portion of the Bible which we, as a people, can point to more than another as our creed, it is the law of ten commandments, which we regard as the supreme law, and each precept of which we take in its most obvious and literal import.
The fourth of these commandments requires cessation from labor on the seventh day of the week, the sixth prohibits the taking of life, neither of which, in our view, could be observed while doing military duty. Our practice has uniformly been consistent with these principles. Hence our people have not felt free to enlist into the service....
We would further represent that Seventh-day Adventists are rigidly anti-slavery, loyal to the government, and in sympathy with it against the rebellion.
But not having had a long existence as a distinct people, and our organization having but recently been perfected, our sentiments are not yet extensively known. The change in the law renders it necessary that we take a more public stand in the matter. For this reason we now lay before your Excellency the sentiments of Seventh-day Adventists, as a body, relative to bearing arms, trusting that you will feel no hesitation in endorsing our claim that, as a people, we come under the intent of the late action of Congress concerning those who are conscientiously opposed to bearing arms, and are entitled to the benefits of said laws. John Byington General Conference J. N. Loughborough Executive Committee George W. Amadon of Seventh-day Adventists Battle Creek, August 2, 1864.
This communication addressed to the governor was accompanied by letters of introduction and commendation from the mayor and the leading citizens of Battle Creek.
Governor Blair's Reply
The delegation carried back with them the governor's reply, brief and to the point, but adequate:
I am satisfied that the foregoing statement of principles and practices of the Seventh-day Adventists is correct, and that they are entitled to all the immunities secured by law to those who are conscientiously opposed to bearing arms, or engaging in war.
Austin Blair
Governor of Michigan
Dated, August 3, 1864.
The next step had to be taken in Washington. For this important mission, J. N. Andrews, armed with appropriate documents, was sent as the church's emissary. Reported James White in the Review of September 6, 1864:
Brother J. N. Andrews left for Washington, Monday [August 29], well endorsed from the highest military authority in this city. He will report through the Review as soon as possible. May it be favorable for those who have enlisted to serve under the Prince of Peace.
Two weeks later the Review carried Andrews' Washington, D.C., report, dated September 1:
Brother White: In obedience to the instructions of the General Conference Committee, I have visited the Provost Marshal General.... He ...stated that the exemption clause of the enrollment law was not construed by him to mean Quakers merely, but to apply to any religious body who hold noncombatant views. He has issued orders to all deputy marshals in accordance with this construction of the exemption clause.
September 18, 1864.
After noting some details of the course that a drafted Adventist should follow, Andrews closed his report on the hopeful note: "I believe that this course of action, which is very plain and simple, will meet the case of all our brethren and will enable them to avail themselves of the provisions of the exemption clause."--Ibid.
Andrews brought back with him from Washington a communication of major import:
Respectfully returned to Rev. J. N. Andrews: Members of religious denominations, who have been drawn in the draft, and who establish the fact before the Board of Enrollment that they are conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms, and are prohibited from so doing by their rules and articles of faith, and that their deportment has been uniformly consistent with their professions, will be assigned to duty in hospitals, or to the care of freedmen, or shall be exempt on payment of $300, to such persons as the Secretary of War may designate.
By Command of the Provost Marshal General, Theo. McMurtrie, Capt. & A.A.A.G.--Ibid.
Now Fully Recognized as Noncombatants
Seventh-day Adventists were now assured of the acceptance by the United States Government of their status as noncombatants. It would take some time to determine just how things would work out at local levels. In the meantime church leaders hastened to prepare documents that a drafted man could employ in demonstrating his eligibility for noncombatant status. This was done in two pamphlets, one of twenty-seven pages entitled "Compilation of Extracts, From the Publications of Seventh-day Adventists Setting Forth Their View of the Sinfulness of War, Referred to in the Annexed Affidavits." The other was a pamphlet of nineteen pages titled "The Views of Seventh-day Adventists Relative to Bearing Arms, as Brought Before the Governors of Several States and the Provost Marshal General With a Portion of the Enrollment Law." Both came from the press very early in 1865.
Armed with these documents, a draftee still had the choice of paying the $300 commutation money or entering the service, with his conscientious scruples recognized and provided for. Two reports in the Review subsequently indicate that on the local level, recognition of the claims of Adventist men was difficult to secure. The machinery was just beginning to come into use when in April, 1865, the war was suddenly concluded.
Seventh-day Adventists, in harmony with an appeal from the General Conference Committee, observed Sabbath, August 27, 1864, as a day of fasting and prayer. Three points of concern were named in a brief article titled "Spare Thy People, Lord":
1. The existing war, which threatens to very much retard the progress of the third angel's message.
2. The condition of American slaves.
3. That God will direct His people to act wisely and humbly in reference to the draft, and overrule impending events to their good and His glory.--Ibid., August 9, 1864
On October 20 the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, proclaimed "the last Thursday in November next, as a day ...of thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the universe." It was a day for humility and pleading with God for "peace, union, and harmony throughout the land" (Ibid., November 8, 1864).
On January 24, 1865, there appeared in the Review a contributor's note titled "The New Call for Men." It opened with the words "The President of the United States has issued another call for 300,000 volunteers to fill up the ranks in our armies." The writer pointed out that most of this need would probably be supplied by a draft, and this would take not a few Seventh-day Adventists. James White wearily commented:
If this war continues, God only knows what it will do for even noncombatants. Unless Heaven interposes, they may not always be treated with that respect and mercy which they now receive.--Ibid., January 24, 1865
A Call to Importune God to Stop the War
The next week James White addressed the readers of the Review. After expressing gratitude for "the provision made by the government for the exemption of noncombatants from bearing carnal weapons," he proposed to fellow Adventists:
Prayer and giving of thanks for those in authority constitute a proper portion of their Sabbath and other seasons of public worship, and also of family and private devotions. And besides this, we recommend that the second Sabbath in each month be especially set apart to fasting and prayer in view of the present terrible war, and the peculiar relations which noncombatants sustain to the government, that they may still enjoy liberty of conscience, and lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.--Ibid., January 31, 1865
"Gratified with the article presented by Brother White," the General Conference Committee endorsed the position he had taken and recommended "to all our brethren to observe Sabbath, February 11, as a day of fasting and prayer, for the objects specified in said article" (Ibid.).
By mid-February, 1865, it was clear to the committee that if the war did not come to an early close, and if there was to be a call for more men every five or six months, "we must inevitably lose means, or lose our own numbers, and lose those who would embrace the truth, and lose the attention of the people."--Ibid., February 21, 1865
We are thus brought, as it plainly appears to us, to a place where if the war continues, we must stop. We repeat it, the war must stop, or our work in spreading the truth must stop. Which shall it be?
Relying upon God, and having confidence in the efficacy of prayer, and the indications of His prophetic word, we believe that the work of God must not be hindered. True Christians are the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. If ten righteous persons could have been found in Sodom, it would have been spared. God's work in these last days must not, will not, stop.-- Ibid.
Then came a most unusual appeal:
We would recommend, nay more, earnestly request, all our churches and scattered brethren to set apart four days commencing Wednesday, March 1, and continuing till the close of the following Sabbath, as days of earnest and importunate prayer over this subject. Let business be suspended, and the churches meet at one o'clock on the afternoon of each of the weekdays, and twice on the Sabbath, to pour out their supplications before God.
These meetings should be free from anything like discussion, and be characterized by humiliation, confessions, prayers for light and truth, and efforts for a fresh and individual experience in the things of God....
During these days of prayer, we recommend on the part of all a very abstemious and simple diet.... Labor will be suspended at the Review office, and there will consequently be no paper next week....
We shall expect that all who have the interests of the message at heart will engage willingly and earnestly in this matter; and we pray that those who do not feel over our present times and prospects may be speedily aroused.--Ibid.
Seventh-day Adventists responded most heartily.
President Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, given on March 4, 1865, acknowledged the scourge of the war as a result of the crime of slavery. Here are his words:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so, still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.--Ibid., March 21, 1865
By this time the Review and Herald carried in almost every issue information concerning the draft situation and advice to draftees. The issue of March 14 had an editorial written by Uriah Smith, noting marked changes of men in key positions and attitudes that, it seemed, placed the nation in a position where God could favor the efforts of Union forces. The question was asked:
Is not the nation taking a position where God can favor it, and crown its efforts with success? Let the late Union victories, and the rebel disasters, answer. Let the crumbling power of the Confederacy answer. Let the fall of Savannah, Wilmington, and Charleston answer. Let the giant grip which Grant holds upon the demon of rebellion before Petersburg and Richmond, while Sherman, by his triumphant march through the heart of Georgia and South Carolina, deals death blows to its very vitals, answer....
What the course of events in the future may be, we cannot tell. We pray for the holding of the winds, the cessation of this strife....
Meanwhile strong in our trust that God will work in His own good way and time, we wait for the speedy holding of the winds, the last loud proclamation of the truth, and the not-far-distant consolation of Israel.--Ibid., March 14, 1865
The Devastating War Suddenly Ends
On April 9 General Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. The war was virtually over. There were still some activities to be quelled farther south and to the west, which ran into May. But on April 11, two days after Lee's surrender, Editor Smith of the Review and Herald, recognizing the visible answer to prayer, wrote cautiously of the prospects of peace:
While the loyal North is rejoicing in the downfall of Richmond, the signal successes of the Union arms, and the apparent nearness of the complete overthrow of the rebellion, and the consequent peace, none have more reason to rejoice than the commandment-keeping people of God, and none can rejoice more understandingly than they.
They see in the prospect not only the immediate effects that others see, the cessation of slaughter and bloodshed, ...but they see in it a fulfillment of prophecy, an answer to prayer, a bright token that the great Shepherd of Israel is going before His flock. We therefore thank God for the visible manifestation of His hand in our national affairs.--Ibid., April 11, 1865
A week later Smith referred to the wide acclaim of God's providential hand in the affairs of the nation:
It is right and appropriate that God should be recognized in the national gratitude; for He it is who has given the victory. But to see so general an acknowledgment from the official under his seal of authority, to the humblest citizen, is more than could have been expected.--Ibid., April 18, 1865
He cited several supporting exhibits, among them the Chicago Tribune. It closed its announcement of Grant's victory with the exclamation "Glory to God." A prominent speaker in Detroit declared:
This is a day of delirious joy, and we do well to be glad. Richmond and Petersburg are ours, and Lee has surrendered. How the heart leaps at the announcement, and with what grateful aspirations to ...God, who with us and on our side has at last guided our gallant hosts to the victory.--Ibid.
The recognition of God's providence in the speedy closing of the war was quite generally accepted. The readers of the Review were treated to a significant item in the American Missionary for April, calling attention to
the strong religious element in the rejoicing over our victories. The ascription of our great successes to God was all but universal. In the high places of the land and on the busiest marts of trade, as well as in churches and around the domestic altars of Christian families, the same pious recognition was manifest. The brilliant transparency on the Capitol at Washington, "It is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes," and the uncovered multitude in Wall Street joining reverently in prayer and singing the Christian Doxology were rare but representative facts.--Ibid., June 6, 1865
And what was the significance of a recent act of Congress that directed that all new dies made at the United States Mint were to bear the motto "In God We Trust"?
The favorable trend led James White to appeal to the church:
The holding of the winds, in the suppression of the rebellion, outstripping even our faith in the suddenness of its execution, is opening a wide door before us. Let the thousands of Sabbathkeepers whose prayer ascended two months since for the speedy accomplishment of this work, now so signally answered, again ascend that the great Captain of the Lord's host will meet with His people.--Ibid., May 9, 1865
Adventist Position on Relation to War Established
Seventh-day Adventists, just moving into church organization, were, as the War Between the States opened, forced to find their way in a very difficult and sensitive area. They had no guidelines to follow. While the Ten Commandments prohibited the taking of life and the desecration of the seventh-day Sabbath, the history of God's people of old under the theocracy was not a paradigm. But God did not leave His remnant people to flounder. They prayed and studied, and when God gave counsel through His messenger Ellen White they listened. Yet the Lord did not, at the outset, make absolutely clear the path to follow. The last message of direction from Ellen's pen on record was given in January, 1863, before there was a draft. As time went on and situations worsened, the church found its way.
It may be thought that decisions could have been made without the guidance of Providence. But not so. For perhaps good reasons, better understood in the worldwide outreach of the church functioning in many lands, with governments of differing legal structures and political philosophies, no universal mandate was given through the voice or pen of Ellen G. White. One statement made twenty years later offers a satisfying assurance that the positions taken by church leaders in the early 1860s were in harmony with God's guidance and approval. This is found in a setting of another oppressive situation, in which the draft is named.
Writing to church leaders in 1886, Ellen White stated:
You inquire in regard to the course which should be pursued to secure the rights of our people to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience. This has been a burden of my soul for some time, whether it would be a denial of our faith and an evidence that our trust was not fully in God. But I call to mind many things God has shown me in the past in regard to things of a similar character, as the draft and other things. I can speak in the fear of God, it is right we should use every power we can to avert the pressure that is being brought to bear upon our people.--Letter 55, 1886 (see also Selected Messages 2:334, 335).
The Civil War came to a close too soon to test well the provisions made by the government to bring relief to drafted Seventh-day Adventists. But in World War I and subsequent military situations, the steps taken in 1864 and 1865 paved the way for relief of Seventh-day Adventists in the armed services.
From Union Soldier to General Conference President
[Account based primarily on G. A. Irwin obituary, The Review and Herald, June 5, 1913.]
We pause to mention one young man from Ohio--not a Seventh-day Adventist--who at the outset of the conflict enlisted in the forces of the North, George A. Irwin. His mother died when he was 9, and after being shifted around among various relatives, at 17 he enlisted in the Union Army for three years. In 1864 he reenlisted and served until the end of the war.
In 1863, serving under General Grant, he participated in the siege of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. Later, fighting under Sherman in his seventeenth engagement, Irwin was captured near Atlanta, Georgia. He was consigned to the prisoner-of-war stockade at Andersonville. Under unbelievable conditions, thirteen thousand Union soldiers died there during the war, but George survived. At Andersonville a fellow soldier gave him a book, Baxter's Saints' Everlasting Rest, which led to his conversion.
Freed at war's end after seven months of imprisonment, Irwin took up farming in Ohio. He married and joined the Congregational Church, and later the Methodist Church.
When his son, Charles (C. W.), was ready for school, George gave a corner of his farmland for a school; a little later, in this school building, he heard and accepted the third angel's message. He soon became a leader of the Adventists in his home district, and then treasurer of the Ohio Conference. Then, with a four-year Adventist background, Irwin was elected president of the Ohio Conference.
In 1895 he was called to take charge of the work of the church in the Southern States, and in 1897 was elected president of the General Conference, a position he filled for four years. On the reorganization of the General Conference in 1901, Irwin was followed in the General Conference by A. G. Daniells. Through the next twelve years Irwin filled several important positions of leadership in Australia and North America. His son, Charles, in later years served as secretary of the General Conference Department of Education.