The Two Republics, or Rome and the United States of America

“III.—OBJECT

“The object of this Union is to preserve the Christian Sabbath as a day of rest and worship. TTR 746.1

Col. Shepard was made president; “Rev.” J. H. Knowles was made general secretary and editor of Publications, and of the Pearl of Days which was made the official organ of the Association; the whole United States was divided into ten “Districts,” and “Rev.” W. F. Crafts was made Field Secretary, for organizing the work in the said districts, and for carrying on the work at large. When this organization was just one month old, there was held at Washington, D. C., a convention composed of themselves, National Reformers, and Woman’s Christian Temperance Union managers, for the purpose of urging upon Congress, by every means they could employ, religious legislation, which if secured, would commit the nation to the whole National Reforms scheme. TTR 746.2

In April, 1889, the Field Secretary of the Sabbath Union was an important part of the annual National Reform Convention; shortly afterward one of the district secretaries of the National Reform Association, “Rev.” James P. Mills, was made secretary of the Ohio branch of American Sabbath Union, and another, “Rev.” M. A. Gault, was made district secretary of the Sabbath Union for the Omaha District; and in the West, especially in the Omaha District, the conventions of the Sabbath Union were simply joint conventions of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and National Reform workers, directed by the Secretary. The convention at Sedalia, Mo., for instance, was a convention of all the allies of the National Reform Association. TTR 746.3

We have seen that the first definite step toward the organization of the American Sabbath Union, was in presenting to the Methodist Episcopal General Conference a numerously signed petition from Sunday-law associations already existing. The chief of these was the Illinois Association, which dates its active existence as an organization from a convention held in the city of Elgin, November 8, 1887. ¹⁷ Statements and arguments made by representative men in this convention, therefore, will justly show the intent of the Union, which not only in a great measure grew out of it, but of which it afterward became an important part. “Rev.” C. E. Mandeville, D. D., of Chicago, made one of the main speeches of the convention. He afterward became president of the State Association, and vice-president of the American Sabbath Union, the latter of which he is still. In his Elgin speech, Dr. Mandeville spoke on the subject of “Some Dangers Respecting Sabbath Observance,” in the course of which he said:— TTR 747.1

“The subject has two sides. We must not look alone at the religious side. The interests of the Church and State are united.” They must stand or fall together. TTR 747.2

And yet they all make a great show of injured innocence when any person opposes the movement on the ground that it would create a union of Church and State. In the same speech, Dr. Mandeville further said:— TTR 747.3

“The merchants of Tyre insisted upon selling goods near the temple on the Sabbath, and Nehemiah compelled the officers of the law to do their duty, and stop it. So we can compel the officers of the law to do their duty.... When the church of God awakes and does its duty on one side, and the State on the other, we shall have no further trouble in this matter.” TTR 747.4

Yes; we all know how it was before. The gentle Albigenses in the South of France greatly disturbed the church—they refused to obey her commands. But the church was wide awake, for Innocent II was pope; and with the command, “Up! most Christian king; up! and aid us in our work of vengeance,” he saw to it that the State was awake on the other side. Then with the Church awake to its “duty” on one side, and the State on the other, the Albigenses were blotted from the earth, and there was no further trouble in that matter. TTR 747.5

It is worth while further to notice this statement upon the merit of its argument, because it was not only used there by Dr. Mandeville, but it is used everywhere by the whole National Reform alliance. It is their stock argument and example. TTR 748.1

Nehemiah was ruling there in a true theocracy, a government of God; the law of God was the law of the land, and God’s will was made known by the written world, and by prophets. Therefore if Dr. Mandeville’s argument is of any force at all, it is so only upon the claim that the government here should be a theocracy. With this idea the view of Mr. Crafts agrees precisely, and he is not only field secretary, but the originator of the National Sunday-law Union. He claims, as expressed in his own words, in the Christian Statesman of July 5, 1888, that “the preachers are the successors of the prophets.” TTR 748.2

Now put these things together. The government of Israel was a theocracy; the will of God was made known to the ruler by prophets; the ruler compelled the officers of the law to prevent the ungodly from selling goods on the Sabbath. By this religious combination, the government of the United States is to be made a theocracy; the preachers are the successors of the prophets; and they are to compel the officers of the law to prevent all selling of goods and all manner of work on Sunday. This shows conclusively that these preachers intend to take the supremacy into their hands, officially declare the will of God, and compel all men to conform to it. And this deduction is made certain by the words of Prof. Blanchard, in the Elgin convention:— TTR 748.3

“In this work we are undertaking for the Sabbath, we are the representatives of God.” TTR 749.1

The example of Nehemiah never can be cited as a precedent on any subject under any form of government but a theocracy, and when it is cited as an example in any instance in the United States, it can be so only upon the theory that the government of the cities or States of the Union and the Union itself, should be a theocracy. A theocracy is essentially a religious government. Sabbath laws belong only with a theocracy. Sunday laws being advocated upon the theory that Sunday is substituted for the Sabbath, likewise are inseparable from a theocratical theory of government. In such a theory Sunday laws originated, ¹⁸ with such a theory they belong, and every argument in behalf of Sunday laws is, in the nature of the case, compelled to presuppose a theocratical form of government. TTR 749.2

Nor is it alone among the National Reform organs and allies as such, that these evil principles are found. They are found advocated by leading religious papers of the country. The Christian Union, for instance, which opposed the movement at first, now advocates it as strongly as formerly it opposed it. In its issue of September 8, 1887 this paper said:— TTR 749.3

“The political aim of Christianity is to bring forth a time in which Christianity shall control the caucus, religion shall control politics, the politicians shall be saints, and the polls shall be holy ground. TTR 749.4

Such is the situation to-day with regard to the National Reform Association, as it stands before the country with its several active and more or less powerful allies, making itself still more active and more powerful. And from all this it is evident that the whole scheme and organization is it stands to-day, forms only a colossal religious combination to effect political purposes, the chief purpose being to change the form of the United States government, to turn it into a new “kingdom of God,” a new theocracy, in which the civil power shall be but the tool of the religious, in which the government shall no longer derive just powers from the consent of the governed, but shall be absorbed in the unjust and oppressive power of a despotic hierarchy, acting as “the representative of God,” asserting and executing its arbitrary and irresponsible will as the expression of the law and will of God. TTR 749.5

Nor do they shrink from distinctly asserting even this. In the Sedalia joint convention before mentioned the “Rev.” W. D. Gray, who was secretary of the convention and was elected corresponding secretary of the American Sabbath Union for the Omaha District, made a speech as follows:— TTR 750.1

“I, for one, have made this question very much a of a study, especially this topic of it. To appeal to divine authority in our legislation would be to fundamentally change the law of our land, or the principle adopted by our fathers when they said that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. I for one do not believe that, as a political maxim. I do not believe that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. And I believe as Brother Gault on this, I think. And so the object of this movement is an effort to change that feature in our fundamental law. Jefferson was under the influence of French ideas when the Constitution was framed, and that had something to do with leaving God out of the Constitution. ¹⁹ And I think that the provincial history of this country will compel us to come back to that, and recognize God in our constitution. And I see in this reform a Providence teaching us the necessity of recognizing something else besides the will of the people as the basis of government.” TTR 750.2

And at the Chautauqua (N. Y.) Assembly in August following, Col. Elliot F. Shepard, speaking as president of the American Sabbath Union, said:— TTR 750.3

“Governments do not derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. God is the only law-giver. His laws are made clear and plain in his word, so that all nations may know what are the laws which God ordained to be kept.” TTR 750.4

Nothing more need be said to demonstrate that the religio-political movement represented in the National Reform Association, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the Third-party Prohibition Party, and the American Sabbath Union, is a gigantic conspiracy to turn the United States government into a new theocracy in the living image of that of the papacy. TTR 751.1

In 1829-30 the United States Senate was called upon to consider a certain phase of this question, and in the report that was made, the Senate truthfully and warningly observed that— TTR 751.2

“The Jewish government was a theocracy, which enforced religious observances; and though the committee would hope that no portion of the citizens of our country would willingly introduce a system of religious coercion in our civil institutions, the example of other nations should admonish us to watch carefully against its earliest indication, ... Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for the violation of what government denominated the law of God. To prevent a similar train of evils in this country, the Constitution has wisely withheld from our government the power of defining the divine law. It is a right reserved to each citizen; and while he respects the rights of others, he cannot be held amenable to any human tribunal for his conclusions. TTR 751.3

“Extensive religious combinations to effect a political object, are, in the opinion of the committee, always dangerous. This first effort of the kind calls for the establishment of a principle, which, in the opinion of the committee, would lay the foundation for dangerous innovations upon the spirit of the Constitution, and upon the religious rights of the citizens. If admitted, it may be justly apprehended that the future measures of the government will be strongly marked, if not eventually controlled, by the same influence. All religious despotism commences by combination and influence, and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence.” TTR 751.4

Extensive religious combinations for political purposes are indeed always dangerous. The movement under consideration in this chapter is not only an extensive religious combination to effect a political object, but with only a single element lacking—the active co-operation of the Catholic Church—it is the most extensive religious combination that could be formed in the country, and even that element is fast falling into line. Therefore, as it is an undeniable truth that extensive religious combinations to effect a political object are always dangerous, and as there stands before the government of the United States to-day, the most extensive religious combination that was ever formed to effect a political object, the proposition stands demonstrated that the situation to-day, in the presence of this great conspiracy, IS MOST DANGEROUS. TTR 751.5