Vindication of the Business Career of Elder James White

INTRODUCTION

THE circumstances which have led to the publication of the following pages, are set forth in the resolutions therein presented. The undersigned, the committee to whose care this matter was entrusted by the church of Seventh-day Adventists, at Battle Creek, and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, held at Battle Creek, May 20, 1863, have endeavored to fulfill the obligations placed upon them, not merely because so instructed, but under a sense of duty which they owed to the individual whose reputation has been assailed, as well as to the cause in which he is engaged. VBCJW 3.1

It is not pleasant that prejudice, enmity, and malice, should so far take possession of people, as to lead them to circulate lying reports, false insinuations, and wicked and unjust charges against any individual; but when a person is thus assailed, it may be a pleasurable duty, as in the case before us, to enter into the work of his vindication and defense. VBCJW 3.2

For nearly five months, as the following record will show, an earnest invitation has been extended through the Review, which circulates wherever Bro. White is known, to all those who thought that there was any ground for the complaints, charges, and murmurs against him, to report their grievances, and have an impartial investigation of the matter. No one has reported himself aggrieved. His enemies have thus betrayed their own utter want of confidence in the work they have been doing. Their silence has sealed their ignominy. Hereafter, in view of this fact, none will be willing to place themselves in the contemptible position of circulating such reports, except those whose enmity and prejudice overcome their convictions of right and reason. VBCJW 3.3

The result of this matter is satisfactory and gratifying to the committee, as it must be to all the friends of Bro. White, and to every lover of truth and justice. VBCJW 4.1

U. SMITH,
G. W. AMADON,
E. S. WALKER.