The Presession
Oakland, California, had been chosen as the site for the 1903 General Conference session. The session was to open on Friday, March 27, and run through a third Sabbath. Meetings would be held in the Oakland church. Most of the delegates would stay in the homes of church members and would breakfast with their hosts. A large tent was pitched across the street from the church, where noon and evening meals would be served by the staff of the San Francisco vegetarian restaurant. A vacant home in Oakland had been rented for the use of Ellen White and her staff during the General Conference session.
On Monday, March 23, Mrs. White traveled to Oakland. Willie had gone on one day in advance. Sara McEnterfer, Maggie Hare, C. C. Crisler, and D. E. Robinson went along with Ellen White. She had hoped that they could drive down, or at least that she could have access to a carriage while she was there, for carriage rides rested her when she was under pressure. This was not feasible, so a comfortable wheelchair was rented that would aid her in going from the rented home to the church where the meetings were held.
On Tuesday morning Elder Daniells, knowing that Ellen White had arrived in Oakland, went to greet her and welcome her. He wondered, How will she greet me? He knew of a 70-page letter Dr. Kellogg had written to prejudice her against him. He knew that if anyone could influence her it was Dr. Kellogg. * As he stepped up onto the porch he found the front door standing open. He looked down the hall and saw Ellen White seated in a rocking chair in the kitchen. He made his way down the hall to the kitchen. When she saw him approaching she called, "Come in, Brother Daniells." Grasping his hand in a warm greeting and looking him in the eye, she said, "Do you know we are facing a great crisis at this meeting?"
"Yes, Sister White," he replied.
She gripped his hand tighter and with a snap in her eyes said, "Don't you waver a particle in this crisis."
To this Daniells replied, "Sister White, those are the most precious words I ever heard. I know who you are and what you mean" (DF 15a, AGD, "How the Denomination Was Saved From Pantheism," copy A, pp. 16, 17).
Then the Lord's messenger disclosed the forces behind the issues they faced."Let me tell you," she said, "Satan has his representatives right here at this place now, and the Lord has bidden me, Have no interview with Dr. Kellogg, no counsel whatever with that man" (Ibid., 17).
This session would be different from any that had preceded it. With the new union conferences functioning well, many matters that normally would come to the General Conference were being handled by union conference committees.
It was planned that this session would be "more a council of leading workers than an occasion for instructing the multitude" (20 WCW, p. 381). This would allow the rank and file of denominational workers to continue their labor in the field. There would be fewer delegates than assembled for the 1901 session at Battle Creek--initial provision called for 134.
This was the first General Conference session under the new constitution that had been adopted two years before. Not only was the plan for union conferences working well, but the various corporations and associations were being developed into departments under the direction of the General Conference Committee.
One weakness in the 1901 constitution had been early discovered, that the work as outlined by the delegates was to be administered by the General Conference Committee of 25, under officers of its choosing--a chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer. Under this arrangement the church officers had no mandate from the people. They were responsible only to a committee of 25.
Elder Daniells' Concerns
Elder Daniells was weary from administrative conflicts and challenges. He pondered whether he should lay down the responsibilities of leadership and engage in another line of work, possibly in evangelism in some other part of the world field. But he was the man in the saddle. With other workers he made the trip from Battle Creek to Oakland in time for a week of presession meetings.
On several occasions Daniells related the experience that came to him at this time. He set apart Sabbath, March 21, preceding the General Conference session, as a day of special personal fasting and prayer. He felt he must know his duty. He went to one of the offices in the Pacific Press publishing house where he could spend the day in study, meditation, and prayer, longing for some omen that would give him courage to move into the session. Through the day and into the evening he remained there. As he knelt in a final prayer, the burden that he might get into true relationship with God's great work on earth rolled upon his heart.
In recounting the story just a few hours before his death, he said, "I struggled unto death, crying aloud, and I nearly reproached the Lord for not giving me some sign, some evidence of my acceptance, and His support of me in the awful battle that was before us." During this struggle he prostrated himself on the floor, clutching, as it were, at the floorboards as he agonized with God. All night he wrestled with the Lord. Then as the morning sun burst into the room, "as distinctly as if audibly spoken, the words burned into my mind as a message from heaven, 'If you will stand by My servant until her sun sets in a bright sky, I will stand by you to the last hour of the conflict'" (AGD, The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, p. 367).
"I couldn't talk any more with God," he said."I was overcome. And although I have made mistakes, God has stood by me, and I have never repudiated that woman, nor questioned her loyalty, to my knowledge, from that night to this. Oh, that was a happy experience to me and it bound me up with the greatest character that has lived in this dispensation" (DF 312c, "Report of a Parting Interview Between AGD and WCW, March 20, 1935," p. 5).
"Every doubt was removed," he reported on another occasion. I knew that I must not run away from the work to which I had been called by my brethren, and that I must stand with them at my post of duty. I was deeply impressed that I must be as true as the needle to the pole to the counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy, that I must stand loyally by the Lord's servant, upholding her hands, and leading this denomination to recognize and appreciate her heaven-sent gift.... I then made my solemn promise to the Lord that I would be true to His cause, that I would do all in my power to prevent anything from arising in this denomination to dim the glory of the priceless gift and of the Lord's servant who had exercised this gift for so many years (AGD, The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, p. 367).
The experience, Elder Daniells said, "marked the beginning of an important era of wholehearted acceptance of the Spirit of Prophecy" (Ibid., 366).
Near the time for the opening of the session Ellen White put into the hands of the delegates and others some of the testimonies that touched on many of the points at issue. The 96-page pamphlet presenting Selections From the Testimonies for the Church for the Study of Those Attending the General Conference in Oakland, California, March 27, 1903 was printed by the Pacific Press. A wide range of topics was represented in this pamphlet. There was special emphasis on the fires in Battle Creek, debt liquidation, and her vision of the 1901 session concerning "what might have been"; there were various items dealing with the churches, consolidation of the publishing work, the work in the South, the Southern Publishing Association, and the use of the Morning Star. It closed with references to the work at home and abroad.
The Business Of The Conference
The business of the conference proper began Monday morning at 9:30. After a roll call of the delegates, the chairman, Elder Daniells, gave his address. In his opening remarks he spoke of the efficient functioning of the union conferences and observed, "Scores of men are now getting the experience of burden-bearing that was previously confined to comparatively few" (The General Conference Bulletin, 1903, 18).
He then introduced the very difficult financial situation in which he found the denomination, and the improved security of its institutions. Speaking of God's leadings through the Spirit of Prophecy, he stated that "another phase of reform to which this people were called was to arise and roll away the reproach of debt that rested so heavily upon them" (Ibid.). The General Conference had been operating on a cash basis, reported Daniells, and had reduced the debts of the denomination by $250,000 (Ibid., 19). World membership at the end of 1902 stood at 67,000 (Ibid., 120).
The first motion placed before the General Conference was significant and far-reaching:
That Elder A. G. Daniells, chairman of the General Conference Committee, be, and is hereby, instructed to appoint a committee of five to examine into the financial standing of all our various institutions, and to investigate their relationship to the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, and to devise and recommend some plan to this conference whereby all institutions, as far as possible under existing corporation laws, be placed under direct ownership, control, and management of our people (Ibid., 21).
The motion was right to the point and highlighted important work to be taken up at the session. It was referred to the Plans Committee, to be brought to the session in proper fashion. But another issue that threatened the cause lurked in the shadows--pantheism, propagated by Dr. Kellogg and his associates.
The business meetings of the General Conference session had been relieved of many of the details that had come before previous sessions, so there was time for discussion of two main items: the ownership of institutions, and the new constitution under which leading officers would be elected by delegates. A few days after the opening of the conference the Committee on Plans and Constitution submitted a partial report, recommending:
"That the General Conference offices be removed from Battle Creek, Michigan, to some place favorable for its work in the Atlantic States" (Ibid., 1903, 67).
As Dr. Kellogg occupied the second Sunday afternoon of the conference with his review of his experience with the Battle Creek Sanitarium, some rather sharp things were said at times. After lengthy debate, the following action was taken about control of institutions:
All institutions created directly by the people, through either General Conference, Union Conference, State Conference, or mission field organization, to be owned by the people, through these or other such organizations as the people may elect (Ibid., 223).
The New Constitution
The second major debate of the 1903 General Conference session, which came toward the end of the meeting, was centered upon the new constitution, specifically the provision for the election of a president and other appropriate officers for the General Conference. Although it was but a slight revision of the 1901 constitution, it was handled as a new document.
Two reports were filed with the session from the Committee on Plans and Constitution. The majority report supported the new constitution, which provided that the leading officers of the General Conference would be chosen by the delegates, thus giving them a mandate from the church. On this committee were a number of conference presidents and W. C. White. The minority report, signed by three men largely connected with institutional interests, claimed that the proposed new constitution would reverse the reformatory steps taken at the General Conference of 1901. These men argued that the constitution of 1901, which provided that the General Conference Committee could choose its officers, should not be "annihilated" without giving it a fair trial.
Dr. Kellogg strongly favored the minority report. In a letter written to Ellen White on the day of the opening of the session, he referred to "the schemes of Daniells and Prescott to become rulers over Israel," which would be "in direct opposition to the whole plan of reorganization which the Lord gave us through you at the last General Conference."
The matter was not settled quickly. A vote with a three-fourths majority was needed. At the close of the evening meeting, April 9, 1903, the vote was taken, with 108 delegates present. Eighty-five voted in favor of the majority report.
Another significant action provided for the use of tithe money for the support of widows and orphans of workers (Ibid., 1903, 135).
Ellen White's Messages To The Delegates
On Saturday night, March 28, Ellen White was shown in vision what she should bring to the session. This led her to request the privilege of addressing the delegates on Monday afternoon. In place of the regular business meeting she presented a sermon on Josiah's reign. * She spoke of the investigation that was made by the king and of the punishment for apostasy. She declared:
Today God is watching His people. We should seek to find out what He means when He sweeps away our sanitarium and our publishing house. Let us not move along as if there were nothing wrong. King Josiah rent his robe and rent his heart. He wept and mourned because he had not had the book of the law, and knew not of the punishments that it threatened.
God wants us to come to our senses. He wants us to seek for the meaning of the calamities that have overtaken us, that we may not tread in the footsteps of Israel, and say, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," when we are not this at all (The General Conference Bulletin, 31).
Sabbath morning she had said:
God wants to work for His people and for His institutions--for every sanitarium, every publishing house, and every school, but He wants no more mammoth buildings erected, for they are a snare. For years He has told His people this (Ibid., 10).
Wednesday morning, April 1, she spoke at the devotional service. She dealt with faultfinding and criticizing, backbiting and cannibalism. Then she began to deal with the church institutions and some of the problems faced by those institutions.
She reminded her audience of the financial embarrassment that had come to the publishing house in Christiania (Oslo), Norway. Some wanted to let the house sink in its financial problems, but she said that "light was given me that the institution was to be placed where it could do its work" (Ibid., 58). Then she came to the question of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, which was on the minds of many, for the institution was being rebuilt at a cost of two or three times what had been estimated. Large debts were accumulating. Some in the meeting were probably surprised when they heard the words:
Let me say that God does not design that the sanitarium that has been erected in Battle Creek shall be in vain. He wants His people to understand this.
He wants this institution to be placed on vantage ground. He does not want His people to be looked upon by the enemy as a people that is going out of sight (Ibid.).
She called for another effort to place the institution on solid ground, and declared, "The people of God must build that institution up, in the name of the Lord."
One man is not to stand at its head alone. Dr. Kellogg has carried the burden until it has almost killed him. God wants His servants to stand united in carrying that work forward (Ibid.).
Before she closed her presentation, she declared:
Because men have made mistakes, they are not to be uprooted. The blessing of God heals; it does not destroy. The Mighty Healer, the great Medical Missionary, will be in the midst of us, to heal and bless, if we will receive Him (Ibid., 59).
Note Ellen White's relationship to situations of this kind. She knew that some institutions had been overbuilt, in disregard of counsel that God had given. But even though mistakes had been made, she contended that these were God's institutions, that the church was to stand by them and make them succeed.
At the close of Ellen White's devotional message on the second Sunday morning of the session, as she was stepping down from the platform, a man rushed forward and attempted to assault her. The man was Helge Nelson, who claimed to have the prophetic gift, and two years earlier had sought repeatedly for an opportunity to speak publicly at the General Conference. Of his attempted attack on Mrs. White this Sunday morning, a newspaper reported:
The venerable exhorter staggered against the pulpit platform steps and tottered feebly as she was grasped by a number of men who were close by, as the hand of her attacker descended upon the unsuspecting woman. Quickly, amid the scene of much commotion, "Angel Nelson" [the title assumed by her attacker] was hustled out of the church by some stout-armed elders. While others attended the stricken woman, Alonzo T. Jones, president of the California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, summoned the police and Nelson was hustled off to the city prison by Patrolman Flynn and charged with battery.
The report stated that "Mrs. White regained her composure shortly, and happily received the congratulations of her friends that the assault had not caused more serious trouble" (DF 586).
Although Nelson had not been given an opportunity to speak in 1901, he did meet with some of the leading church workers. He related to the brethren his experience and what he understood to be his call. In this committee meeting Ellen White recounted her earlier contacts with Mr. Nelson. She told of how he had come to her home in California and she had spent time listening to him. She stated: "God has not given Brother Nelson the work of acting as Joshua in connection with His people. From the light that I have had, this could not be. It is an impossibility" (The Review and Herald, July 30, 1901). She closed her remarks by saying:
We love our brother. We want him to be saved, but we cannot allow him to take the time of this conference. It is not his time. God has given us a work to do, and we intend to do it, under His supervision, that souls may be brought to a knowledge of present truth (Ibid.).
The Move To Washington, D.C.
To move the General Conference offices from their rented quarters in the West Building of the Review and Herald would be quite simple. But to close up the business of the publishing house in Battle Creek and reestablish it elsewhere would involve legal and deeply emotional factors.
The Review and Herald constituency meeting that convened in Battle Creek from April 21 to 29, 1903, was far from tranquil. Church leaders and the majority of the constituency favored the move from Battle Creek, but a relatively few constituent members bitterly opposed it. The Spirit of Prophecy counsels were clearly the deciding factor. The final vote was overwhelmingly in favor of moving. But the vote did not resolve legal matters. The General Conference and the publishing house had been closely connected through the years, and now in the proposed move, both were involved and both must be considered at the same time. The question was whether the move was to be to one location or two.
On May 15 Elder Daniells addressed a letter to Ellen White in which he indicated his need for divine guidance. This appeal for divine help was typical of his letters during the next five months. To this appeal Mrs. White replied immediately:
Dear Brother Daniells,
We have received your letter in regard to the selection of a place for the Review and Herald publishing house.
I have no special light, except what you have already received, in reference to New York and the other large cities that have not been worked. Decided efforts should be made in Washington, D. C....
May the Lord help us to move understandingly and prayerfully. I am sure that He is willing that we should know, and that right early, where we should locate our publishing house. I am satisfied that our only safe course is to be ready to move just when the cloud moves (Letter 95, 1903).
The committee that was appointed in mid-June to seek a suitable location found two promising sites. One was a 97-acre (39-hectare) tract 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of New York at Fishkill, New York, on the Hudson River, where a retired businessman had built a 40-room hotel with many attractive features. It was for sale for $12,000.
A portion of the locating committee, including Elder Daniells, mindful of Ellen White's instruction to give careful consideration to the advantages of Washington, spent four days there and were immediately impressed that the environs of that city possessed many favorable qualities as headquarters for the church.
Takoma Park
The impression grew as the men investigated properties in the close vicinity of the nation's capital. Daniells reported to W. C. White and his mother:
One of the finest places we have found was a place called Takoma Park. It is on the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad running to Chicago and St. Louis. It is also reached by an electric line. It is five or six miles (eight or ten kilometers) from the city. It is ... a large wooded tract of land, lying on each side of the District line, part in the District and part in Maryland. It has an elevation of three hundred feet above the Potomac. It is a magnificent place. We could purchase all the land we required at a very reasonable rate (AGD to WCW, June 21, 1903).
As committee members studied the matter, their recommendation was to give Washington first consideration, but they wanted to retain the option to purchase the Fishkill property.
There were many Battle Creek Adventists who were not eager to see the General Conference and the Review and Herald printing plant leave the city. Three hundred people had been employed in the plant. Many owned their own homes and some had rental properties; they feared personal financial disaster. Then too, the burgeoning cereal food industry, pioneered by the Kelloggs but now far beyond their control, had made Battle Creek a boom town.
But more disturbing to church leaders were the lawsuits threatened by certain disaffected members of the Review and Herald constituency. These could tie things up in legal battles for years.
"We are in a dreadful place," wrote Daniells to the Lord's messenger."God must help us. We are helpless" (AGD to EGW, July 5, 1903).
In agonizing words he poured out his soul:
Sister White, the hour has struck for something to be done. We are in peril. The stability of this cause is at stake. This involves the honor of God and the welfare of thousands of innocent, faithful believers in this message. Unless I am altogether deceived, we are face to face with a crisis....
I want to tell you that I realize as I never have in all my life the need, and the value to the church, of the Spirit of Prophecy. The working of Satan at this present time is surely with all power, and signs, and lying wonders (Ibid.).
On W. C. White's arrival in Battle Creek the men hastened to the East to look at the New York and Washington properties. In spite of a pledge made by the real estate agent to hold the Fishkill property, they found it had been sold by another agent (AGD to EGW, July 23, 1903).
In Washington they hurried out to Takoma Park and found "a fifty-acre [20-hectare] block of land" about a mile (two kilometers) from the post office. This had been developed by a Dr. Flower, who founded a medical institution in Boston and planned to open one in the Washington area. After investing $60,000 in the land and clearing it, he ran into financial trouble. It was now in the hands of a man who, although he held a $15,000 mortgage on it, was willing to sell for $6,000. Daniells wrote: "We paid $100 to bind the bargain." They praised God for His opening providence (Ibid.). Fifty acres (20 hectares) of well-located land seven miles (11 kilometers) from the U.S. Capitol, situated by a beautiful stream, Sligo Creek, for $120 per acre! In their initial planning the brethren saw this as most suitable for sanitarium and school purposes.
Recognizing the advantage of Seventh-day Adventist literature bearing a Washington, D.C., imprint, the men projected that they could also buy a tract of several acres just a mile [two kilometers] to the south, inside the District of Columbia, for a modest investment. Daniells promised Ellen White: "We shall counsel with you freely on this point" (Ibid.).
Anticipating an immediate move, they sought and found in downtown Washington a building with 16 rooms, just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol, which could serve as a temporary headquarters. It seemed to be "just the place." Some printing equipment could be installed in the basement and first-floor rooms. They would take possession August 15 or a little earlier.
Daniells went on to report to Mrs. White:
There was not a dissenting voice among the brethren who were engaged in this important move. The blessing of the Lord rested upon us as we made our decisions day by day.... We believe that the good hand of our God is leading us (Ibid.).
A new printing corporation was formed while the men were in Washington. The address, 222 North Capitol Street, would be shared by the new publishing concern and the General Conference office; operations would begin in Washington in three weeks' time--August 15, 1903.
Knowing Ellen White as he did, Daniells wrote: "I am expecting that before spring you will feel it your duty to come to Washington to see our situation, and counsel with us regarding the work" (Ibid.). He even proposed putting up on the new land a little cottage that she could occupy. These propositions Ellen White would not forget.
Battle Creek Believers Respond To The Proposed Move
The members of the Battle Creek Tabernacle church had to be apprised of the decision to move to Washington. Sabbath morning, July 25, Elder Daniells laid the whole matter before the congregation. He read from three or four of Ellen White's communications that gave instruction as to where they should go. The meeting continued in the afternoon. Elder Prescott read from other E. G. White testimonies and Elder Daniells followed, relating to the church "the providences of God that have opened before us as we have endeavored to walk in the light as given through the Spirit of Prophecy" (AGD to EGW, July 27, 1903).
The opposition that the leading men expected from many of the Battle Creek Adventists when it became known that they were leaving the city did not materialize. The plain instructions and the review of God's leadings and providences made a profound impression, and tears flowed freely.
"There was a softening and subduing influence present in our midst," wrote Daniells to Ellen White. He reported that he had learned that "this experience has given many of our brethren and sisters renewed confidence that the Lord is leading in this work" (Ibid.). Further, he wrote: "I do not think I have seen the Tabernacle congregation so deeply interested and so thoroughly stirred over anything since the last conference here two years ago" (Ibid.).
The Prompt Move To Washington
Packing began at once. Two freight cars were loaded with General Conference furniture and documents on Monday and Tuesday, August 3 and 4. They left Battle Creek on the fifth and were in Washington on August 10. Printing equipment from the West Building followed shortly.
The last issue of the Review and Herald printed in Battle Creek carried the date Tuesday, August 11. The next issue bore the dateline, Washington, D.C., Thursday, August 20. To many Adventists across the land, the fact that their Review came two days late provided the first knowledge that the headquarters of the church and the printing equipment had been moved.
Elder Daniells and others were convinced that God had led in the move. This is apparent from Elder Daniells' letter to Ellen White, the first to be sent from the new Washington headquarters:
Dear Sister White: I am enclosing a copy of a letter I have just written to Brother White about our experiences this week in Washington. I know that you will be anxious to hear from us, and so I send you this copy. I cannot tell you, Sister White, what a blessing we experience as we enter upon our duties in this place. Surely the Lord's hand is in this move. I never felt such confidence in God's leadership in this work as I have since we started out from Battle Creek to find a location in the East.
I believe that He was speaking to us and that if we would obey His voice implicitly and not swerve nor follow our own notions He would give us unmistakable evidence regarding the right place; but, oh, what little conception I had of how clear and how comforting that evidence would be. I cannot tell you what this experience has done for my heart; but I can say that it leads me to a new and full surrender of my life to God and His work.
I see as never before the folly of doubting and hesitating and swerving from the instruction God gives His people. We shall never know until the books unfold it how much has been lost to this cause by failing to render prompt and implicit obedience to all that God calls upon us to do. I must write you again regarding some important matters, but will not write more today. Your letters and instruction never were so precious to me as at this time. I am praying God to help me to not falter whatever may come. Please be free to counsel me as the Lord instructs (AGD to EGW, August 14, 1903).