September 5, 1895

“Some Probabilities of the Southern Chain-gang System” American Sentinel 10, 35, pp. 273-275.

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LAMST May a Seventh-day Adventist of Austell, Ga., was sentenced to twelve months in the chain-gang for private work done on his own farm on Sunday. ^{1Reference is here made to the case of J. Q. Allison, of Austell. Ga. who was tried at Douglassville, May 15, for violation of the Georgia Sunday law, and was sentenced to pay costs, amounting to $27.00, or to default of payment, to serve twelve full months in the chain-gang. His offense was plowing in his own field on Sunday in a place open only to the observation of those who spied upon him. Mr. Allison very properly refused to pay a single cent, and would have been sold into the chain-gang had not an unknown friend paid the costs and secured his release.}AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.1

And now, as appears from the letter printed on page 275, like sentences of ninety days each, are hanging over W. A. McCutchen, a Seventh-day Adventist minister, and E. C. Keck, a Seventh-day Adventist teacher.AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.2

Nor is this all. The Austell Adventist is again threatened with arrest, as are also others of the same faith in Georgia. These facts, together with recent revelations of horrible cruelties practiced upon helpless convicts by the chain-gang authorities suggest the awful possibilities, yea, even probabilities, of the Southern chain-gang system.AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.3

As yet no man, so far as we know, has actually served in the Georgia chain-gang because of his religious opinions and practices, but men have so served in both Henry and Rhea counties, Tennessee: and at the date of this writing, seven Seventh-day Adventists are so serving in the latter-named county: and, like Mr. Allison, these men are threatened with further persecution in case they refuse to violate conscience and surrender their God-given and constitutional rights.AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.4

These convicted Adventists have been as humanely treated as it is possible to treat men who, for no offense against their fellow-men, are taken from their homes and families, and required to subsist upon prison fare, and to work ten hours per day under a southern sun, for daring to obey a command of God. But such a denial of sacred rights is itself barbarous cruelty.AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.5

In both Henry and Rhea counties, Tennessee, the chain-gang had fallen into disuse because it was found to be unprofitable, and it was revived specially for the punishment of Seventh-day Adventists. This is indicative of the temper of the Tennessee authorities.AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.6

The constitution of Tennessee provides that “No person shall in time of peace be required to perform any service to the public on any day set apart by his religion as a day of rest.” Shielded by this wise and humane provision of the fundamental law of that State, no effort has been made in Tennessee to compel Seventh-day Adventists to labor upon the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord. ^{2Adventists have however been denied their constitutional rights in this that they have been required to make up the time “lost” by keeping the Sabbath. Other and sterner measures of compulsion are inevitable.} But the constitution of Georgia contains no such provision, and in view of the revelations of horrible cruelty already referred to, it is easy for the imagination to picture the treatment in store for the conscientious Christian who, being sentenced to the Georgia chain-gang for loyalty to the Sabbath, refuses to labor upon that day.AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.7

Some of the abuses of the Georgia chain-gang system have just been brought into public notice by a suit which has been entered by an ex-convict against the penitentiary lessees for damages, for injuries inflicted upon him by the barbarities to which he was subjected while serving in the chain-gang.AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.8

This man, Harvey Merritt, a negro, was, when he entered the chain-gang, strong and healthy. He was pardoned recently by the governor, only a shadow of his former self, being a complete physical wreck. Shortly after being placed in the chain-gang, Merritt was taken down with rheumatism and was unable to work. His legs and hips were so swollen that he could not walk; and yet he was refused medical assistance, and was subjected to the most inhuman treatment. We quote his own words as they appeared in the New York Herald, of August 18:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 273.9

Dr. McCown, who was in charge, said I wasn’t sick at all, and would not treat me. But all the five weeks, each morning they dragged me out to the works [a brickyard], which were about a half a mile out, and let me lie there all day. Then they dragged me back at night. They dragged me head first on my breast, and wore the skin all off of my belly and breast.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.1

“For the first ten or fifteen days this man was not whipped. Then one of the lessees,” says the Herald’s correspondent, “visited the camp and ordered the whipping boss to give him a hundred lashes a day for three months, or, until he would work. In vain did the poor convict explain that he was sick.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.2

The next day the doctor and the lessee came to where Merritt was lying, in front of the building.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.3

“Get up and walk,” ordered the lessee.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.4

The negro complained that he could not.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.5

Then Captain James, who was whipping boss, took a heavy pole and beat the negro with it. “I was lying down,” he says,” James hit me on the back of the head and shoulders. He was beating me when the doctor told him to stop, saying that anybody could see that I was sick.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.6

Subsequently, this man was given seventy-five lashes. When cold weather came on he was refused shoes or sufficient clothing, and both his feet were badly frozen.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.7

This man has employed as his attorney Col. E. N. Broyles, one of the best lawyers in Georgia, a man notably conservative, and one who does not figure in sensational cases. Colonel Broyles hesitated for some time to take this case because the statements made by the negro seemed to be incredible. He began an investigation, however, and was soon fully satisfied that the man was telling the truth.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.8

The case of Merritt is an extreme one, but by no means isolated. Last winter there were numerous cases reported from Georgia, in which convicts suffered severely from insufficient clothing: some were compelled to work almost naked in icy water until their feet were frozen, and they were permanently crippled. Some lost portions of their feet, and in one or two cases, legs had to be amputated.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.9

Such are the abuses to which, under the Sunday law of Georgia, God-fearing men, good citizens, ^{3The judge before whom J. Q. Allison was tried, said to him: “I understand you are a good man: your neighbors say you are: there is nothing in the world against you.” But notwithstanding this, his honor advised him to leave the State, and said:
“If you come up before me again, I will put you where it will be a long time before you can get out of the State.”} good neighbors, kind husbands and fathers, are liable to be subjected at any time; for while the abuses cited have occurred in connection with the penitentiary system, it is stated by the Herald that—AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.10

If the abuses in the penitentiary proper are bad, the abuses in the collateral branch, known as the county chain-gangs, are infinitely worse.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.11

The men who are sentenced by the courts to short terms for misdemeanors—the men who, in the eyes of the courts, are not guilty of crimes [felonies]—fare worse than do the convicts in the penitentiary proper.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.12

One of the editors of the AMERICAN SENTINEL visited Georgia recently for the express purpose of learning for himself the truth about the chain-gang system, and seeing for himself convicts actually at work in chain-gangs. He saw, in the city of Atlanta, working in the Exposition Grounds and on streets adjacent thereto, several hundred convicts, each man wearing a chain: and watching each gang was a guard, with a Winchester rifle or a double-barreled shot-gun, ready to shoot down any man or boy who might attempt to escape.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.13

Many of these men worked in an aimless, hopeless sort of way as though all the spirit was crushed out of them. Some wore double sharp tones, which indicated that they would brook no disobedience; and altogether the scene was one never to be forgotten.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.14

Each country is allowed to work its misdemeanor convicts in chain gangs, and they are put to work on the roads or streets. It is not an unfamiliar sight to see men and boys wearing heavy shackles, working upon the roads, or upon the streets of cities; and, as in the case of the chain-gangs already described, each squad has its guard armed with a Winchester rifle or a double-barreled shot gun and a six shooter. The State has no reform school, and the writer saw boys of twelve or fourteen years of age wearing striped suits and working with other convicts in the chain-gang in Atlanta. Some of these boys looked like anything but hardened criminals, and were probably more sinned against than sinning. The younger ones did not wear chains while at work. Not long since, one of these boys was beaten to death by an inhuman overseer. A correspondent of the New York Herald, speaking, August 18, of the youthful convicts working in county chain-gangs, says:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.15

A Dodge County boy who was convicted of a misdemeanor, was sent to a chain-gang in Laurens County. He was needed in Dodge to testify in another case, and he came back there practically a physical wreck. It was shown that he had been so badly beaten that he could scarcely walk. There were great welts all over him. The evidences of cruelty were so marked that the county authorities at once presented the facts to the governor, and the boy was pardoned.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.16

Another instance of cruelty in a county chain-gang, is thus reported by the same writer:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.17

William Griffin, a white convict, was interviewed by the Yaldosta Times, and told the story of how, on Christmas Eve, he saw one of the convicts flogged so badly that he died that night. This was in one of the private chain-gangs, which are operated in some of the smaller counties. The county itself has not enough convicts to warrant running a chain-gang of its own. Some enterprising individual succeeds in leasing these convicts and those from other small counties near by, and there he operates it, the absolute monarch, without any restraint whatever. Instances have been cited where these men have held convicts beyond the time for which they were sentenced.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.18

Griffin thus tells of the rations served in some of the county chain-gangs:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.19

For breakfast, half a pone of corn bread and a small slice of meat; the same amount of bread and a slightly larger slice of meat for dinner; half a pone of bread and a little syrup for supper. Sometimes a small amount of greens at dinner, not half as much as a man would want to eat.AMS September 5, 1895, page 274.20

The term “meat” means here the side of hogs, almost all fat and heavily salted. The complaint is universal among the men that they do not have enough to eat.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.1

As might be expected, the accommodations for sleeping are no better than the rations. At night the convicts are kept in ill-smelling, vermin-infested stockades. There is one such in Atlanta. The convicts are packed together like sardines in a box. A central chain runs through the building, and to this all the convicts are fastened by the leg-chains which they are required to wear constantly. Many stories are told of shameful neglect of these chained men. In fact, horrors equaling the stories of the sufferings of Russian exiles to Siberia are of every-day occurrence in the chain-gangs and stockades of Georgia.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.2

These details are revolting even when we know that the men who suffer these things are justly deprived of their liberty and required to render services to the public; but revolting as are such scenes, they pale before the scenes which are almost certain to be witnessed erelong in the State of Georgia, when honest, God-fearing men shall be driven in the chain-gangs of that State and most barbarously treated for refusal to work upon the divinely-appointed Sabbath of the Lord.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.3

Such injustice in milder form has been witnessed already in other States. But Georgia presents an unusually promising field for revolting outrages against religious liberty, from the fact that the laws of that State provide that one guilty of violating the Sunday law, may be “punished by a fine not to exceed $1,000, imprisonment not to exceed six months, to work in the chain-gang upon the public works, or on such other works as the county authorities may employ the chain-gang, not to exceed twelve months; and any one or more of these punishments may be ordered, at the discretion of the judge.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.4

Persistent refusal to work in the chain-gang would be counted insurrection, and might be punished with death; and would certainly be punished very severely by the grasping contractors. It is fearful to contemplate the probabilities growing out of the Georgia Sunday law; for Seventh-day Adventists convicted under that law would certainly refuse to work on the Sabbath; and judging by the treatment accorded to other prisoners, they could expect no mercy from their inhuman overseers. And yet we are living in the closing decade of the nineteenth century, in “free America,” a so-called Christian land.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.5

The question has been asked, “What if Christ should come to London, or Chicago, or to Congress?” But is it not equally pertinent to ask, What if he should come to Tennessee or Georgia, and there find in prisons, stockades, and chain-gangs, Christian men condemned for loyalty to the “Sabbath of the Lord”? Would he not say:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.6

I have come, and the world shall be shakenAMS September 5, 1895, page 275.7

Like a reed, at the touch of my rod.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.8

And the kingdoms of time shall awakenAMS September 5, 1895, page 275.9

To the voice and the summons of God:AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.10

No more through the din of the agesAMS September 5, 1895, page 275.11

Shall warnings and chidings divine,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.12

From the lips of my prophets and sages,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.13

Be trampled like pearls before swine.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.14

I turn from your altars and arches,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.15

And the mocking of steeples and domes,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.16

To join in the long, weary marchesAMS September 5, 1895, page 275.17

Of the ones ye have robbed of their homes;AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.18

I share in the sorrows and crosses,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.19

Of the naked, the hungry and cold,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.20

And dearer to me are their lossesAMS September 5, 1895, page 275.21

Than your gains and your idols of gold.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.22

I will wither the might of the spoiler,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.23

I will laugh at your dungeons and locks.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.24

The tyrant shall yield to the toiler,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.25

And your judges eat grass like the ox.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.26

For the prayers of the poor have ascendedAMS September 5, 1895, page 275.27

To be written in lightnings on high,AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.28

And the walls of your captives have blendedAMS September 5, 1895, page 275.29

With the bolts that must leap from the sky. ^{4James G. Clark, in Arena for December, 1894.}AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.30

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” But deliverance is none the less certain. The justice of God slumbereth not.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.31

“True Protestantism” American Sentinel 10, 36, p. 275.

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TRUE Protestantism is that Protestantism which most truly and forcibly protests against the evil principles represented in the religion of the papacy.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.1

Those evil principles are older than the papal system, and true Protestantism is older than the Reformation.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.2

The most effective protest against error is a statement of the truth: and as actions speak plainer than words, the most effective presentation of divine truth is found in the Christian life.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.3

This is true Protestantism, and it is as old as the creation of man. Its effectiveness has been shown in all ages, by the persecution it has brought upon its exemplifiers in the world. It is shown now by the persecution directed against Christian violators of the Sunday law, by those who adhere to the papal doctrine that Sunday is the Sabbath, and that civil power should enforce religious dogmas, while other violators around them are not molested.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.4

This Protestantism is not a mere negation, dependent on other doctrines for its existence. It is the living, positive, eternal truth of God. It was first, and the errors of Romanism and of all false religions came afterwards. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,” and by the same word truth has stood in all ages, stands now, and will stand eternally. The Reformers found that word, and receiving it in faith, they at once became Protestants. It is thus that true Protestants are made to-day.AMS September 5, 1895, page 275.5

“Is It Singular?” American Sentinel 10, 36, p. 276.

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BISHOP A. G. HAYGOOD, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, said in commenting upon the prosecution of Adventists in Tennessee: “Singularly these violators of civil law—claiming conscience for keeping Saturday—seem to have no conscience about breaking the law of the State their citizenship binds them to support.AMS September 5, 1895, page 276.1

Is it singular that a Christian, acting in the fear of God, refuses to do wrong, even though a law of the land commands it? Is it not a singular kind of a conscience which would dictate kind of a conscience which would dictate a blind obedience to every human enactment which might assume the form of law, even though as bad as the fugitive slave law, or some law of heathen lands? Would a Christian be thus bound by his conscience in China? Or were the early Christians so bound under the laws of pagan Rome? If so, their martyrdom was due to their own folly.AMS September 5, 1895, page 276.2

Christians have always disregarded human laws when they were clearly contrary to the law of God. The Christian’s conscience can not be separated from that law, for that is the eternal rule of right. That would be a singular kind of conscience which would make human law its guide, taking no account of the law of God. That is not the kind possessed by the Adventists.AMS September 5, 1895, page 276.3

“In the Chain-Gang Under the Flag” American Sentinel 10, 35, pp. 277, 278.

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[Reprinted by request from the SENTINEL of August 1.

IT was the evening of the third of July, that the eight Seventh-day Adventists, now in the chain-gang in Rhea County, Tenn., went to prison.AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.1

Court had adjourned until the following Monday, and the judge, before whom they had been tried, the attorney-general, who prosecuted them, and the jurors, who found them guilty, had all gone home to spend the Fourth—with their friends.AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.2

But not so with the convicted Adventists. Their wives and children, a number of whom had been in court to hear the judge’s sentence, had bidden them a sorrowful good-by, and had gone to their now lonely homes. Most of their friends who had been with them through the trial had also gone home and left them—prisoners.AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.3

It was then the sheriff said, “Come on,” beckoning them to fall into line for the march to the jail, which was to be their prison until the temporary workhouse should be ready for the occupancy of—the chain-gang.AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.4

A few moments sufficed to reach the prison, and then came the registration of their names with a detailed description of each man, so that should they escape they might be easily identified. But the eight Adventists had no thought of escape. They would not resist wrong and oppression even to the extent of seeking freedom in flight.AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.5

As the sheriff registered their names, some, earnest of the patriotic demonstrations of the morrow—“the glorious Fourth”—attracted their attention and reminded them that it was the even of the National Independence Day; and one of them said, with a smile and yet sadly, and with just a touch of irony in his tone: “Sheriff, won’t you please erect a liberty pole to-morrow where we can see it?”AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.6

Oh, what a train of thought is started by that question! What! a liberty pole and a flag for convicts? What could “Old Glory,” the “Star Spangled Banner,” the emblem of Freedom, the flag of both the State and the Nation, mean to men who had violated the “law” of the land, who had braved the power which wears the flag? What comfort could chain-gang convicts, “law” breakers, possibly derive from looking upon the banner unfurled by the power that enslaves them—that power that brands them as enemies of the State, and drives them to the stone pile with the vilest criminals, that locks them in loathsome cells or works them ten hours per day under a broiling sun, for no other offense than worshiping God according to the dictates of their own consciences? In short, What is the flag of the Union to Seventh-day Adventists to-day?AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.7

Ah! thrilling memories cluster around that flag; for while Seventh-day Adventists have no taste for war or carnage, while they as followers of the Prince of Peace are opposed to war, even as are the Quakers, they remember that it was in the providence of God that this land became an asylum for the oppressed of other lands; and they love the old flag because under its folds their forefathers found that liberty to worship, which was denied them in the Old World, and which is to-day denied Adventists in “free America;” not because of the flag nor of that for which it stands, but in flagrant violation of the principles represented by every fiber of that noble banner; principles for which patriots died in 1776, and for which in this year of our Lord, 1895, men toil in the chain-gang in Tennessee. And in the language of the poet these men can to-day look upon that flag and say—AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.8

“Thou art Freedom’s child, Old Glory,AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.9

Born of Freedom’s high desire.” ^{1From “Old Glory,” by James G. Clark, in Arena for May.}

The flag had its birth in the days of Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison, and Patrick Henry; in the days when men knew the value of liberty because they had known what it was to be denied freedom of conscience; in the days when humble Quakers, patient Mennonists, noble Baptists, and warmhearted Methodists and staunch Presbyterians alike claimed as an inalienable and God-given right, freedom to worship their Creator according to the dictates of conscience, and challenged the right of any man to dictate to them in matters of religion, or in any manner to come between them and their God.AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.10

Those stars and stripes stand for the immortal Declaration of Independence and for that noble charter of liberty, the Constitution of the United States; not as perverted by the Supreme Court decision of February 29, 1892, but as it stood when our fathers had written into it: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” And just as men deprived of water, love to think of “parting streams and crystal fountains,” of roiling rivers and wars-swept lakes, so Christian patriots, men who, living in all good conscience, render to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s, love to look upon the banner of civil liberty, even though that which it represents has been denied them; yes, even though their hearts bleed for the wrongs which they suffer, and for the violence done to that freedom once cherished, but now lightly esteemed by so many who know not its worth; for they know that religious rights are as lasting as the rock-ribbed hills or snow-capped mountains, yea, that they are as eternal as the Everlasting King who gave them; that such rights “are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights, of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens however small;” and that though despotic power may invade those rights, “justice still confirms them.” And they with the poet can say:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.11

Knaves have stolen thee, Old Glory,
For their Babylonians lovers,
From their festal walls and towers
Droops the flag that then was ours;AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.12

O’er their crimes thy beauty trails,
And the old-time answer fails
When from chain-gangs, courts and jails
Men appeal to thee, Old Glory. ^{2From “Old Glory,” by James G. Clark, in Arena for May.}AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.13

The flag is not a god, but in the providence of God it stands as the high water-mark of human liberty. But alas! as the sacred name of Christ has been made the cloak of most unchristian acts, so this providential symbol of liberty has been made the covering for most revolting crimes against the most sacred rights of men. And as Madame Roland, on her way to the guillotine, bowed before the clay statue of Liberty erected in the Place de l? Revolution, exclaimed: “Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name;” as Seventh-day Adventists can to-day raise the stars and stripes with these words: “O banner of liberty, what crimes are committed under thy ample folds! what wrongs are done in thy name! what injustice and oppression is practiced by those who are sworn to maintain the principles by which thou wast begotten!”AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.14

“Corrupted freemen are the worst of slaves;” and we have fallen upon evil times, when men know not what true liberty means. Some in the mad pursuit of wealth, others in the fierce struggle for existence, have forgotten that he who fails to protest against the persecution of his neighbor, thereby virtually forfeits the right to protest when he is himself persecuted. Channing has well said: “The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.15

It was the purpose of the founders of this Government to erect, if possible, impassable barriers against religious bigotry and intolerance. As remarked by the compiler of “American State Papers Bearing on Religious Legislation“:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.16

Both Jefferson and Madison were opposed to the States having anything whatever to do with regulating religious observances of any kind; and the liberal spirit supported them. But as this spirit is supplanted by self-interests, the intolerance of State Courthouses again manifests itself in reviving the old religious laws, and prosecuting Sabbatarians for Sunday labor, etc. Jefferson, foreseeing this, designed to have all religious laws swept from the statute books, not willing to have them remain as a dead-letter, which might, at any time be revived by the partisan zealot. In his “Notes on Virginia,” query, xvii, Jefferson says:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.17

“Besides, the spirit of the time may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecution, and better ones be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis, is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 277.18

In the light of current events, Jefferson’s words seem almost prophetic. The spirit of the times have altered; our rules have, many of them, become corrupt; and the question has been repeatedly asked of petitioners for justice, “How many are there of you? Have you political influence?” Our people have become careless, and in scores of cases a few bigots have commenced persecution and better men have been their victims. But neither the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, nor the banner which represents them in any nor in all of these. The fault lies at the door of fallen human nature, and the remedy is the power of God; for such things will be until He comes, whose right all dominion is, for his alone is a righteous rule. And the divine promise is: “At that time shall thy people be delivered; every one that shall be found written in the book.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 278.1

“Back Page” American Sentinel 10, 35, p. 280.

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JOHN MATHEWS, a Seventh-day Adventist, of Selton, Ont., was on August 28 put in jail at Chatham, Ont., for doing ordinary labor on Sunday. His “crime” was cutting hay on Sunday, July 7, and building a fence on Sunday, August 4. He was given the alternative by the judge of paying $20.65 (fine and costs), or of spending thirty days in a prison cell. As he would not be a party to the iniquitous proceeding by any voluntary act, he refused to pay the fine, and is now in jail. And thus, to borrow the language of Gibbon, the world is fast becoming “a safe and dreary prison” for all such as honor God by keeping his Sabbath, and refuse to honor the rival institution, Sunday.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.1

THE Knoxville (Tenn.) Tribune remarks that “Sunday laws are taking a new grip on themselves all over the country.” This is true not only of this country but of all the world; with this exception, that said “laws” are taking a grip on Seventh-day Adventists rather than on themselves. If they gripped all violators alike, their purpose would be less evident and the Tribune would not be issued on Sunday as at present.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.2

But an unjust statute is not made better by being universally applied, and we are glad that while Adventists toil in the chain-gang for private Sunday work the Tribune is unmolested. Every man has a natural, God-given right to work on Sunday whether he keeps another day or not, and he has that right even though he gives his voice in favor of denying the same right to his fellow-men.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.3

AMS stated in these columns last week, the authorities of Rhea County, Tenn., not content with depriving honest, Christian men of their God-given rights and driving them in the chain-gang for nearly two months, have decided to require them to serve an additional length of time because they would not work upon the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.4

Inasmuch as Sabbath-keepers alone have been singled out for prosecution, while others who have worked much more openly and in a way better calculated to disturb the general quiet of the day, than have Adventists, have not been prosecuted, it is patent to all that Adventists have been imprisoned and driven in chain-gangs, not for Sunday work, but for Sabbath rest. But plain as that is, it is even plainer that this additional penalty is a penalty imposed upon them directly for Sabbath rest. They are thus made to pay directly for the privilege of keeping the Sabbath; and this under a constitution which declares that “no human authority can in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.5

A Sunday-keeper must have his day protected by law, but the Sabbath-keeper must pay for the privilege of keeping the Sabbath of the Lord by a hard day’s work for every Sabbath that he keeps while in prison; and by spending in idleness, if he obeys the “law,” one day for every Sabbath he keeps while not in prison.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.6

Certainly the State of Tennessee has reached a point where even the most obtuse can see that its prosecution of Seventh-day Adventists, is persecution, pure and simple.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.7

THE Kentucky Baptist Standard (Waco, Texas), of August 15, has a very ill-natured note upon the imprisonment of Adventists in Tennessee, in which it sharply rebukes the Indiana Baptist and the Journal and Messenger for the sympathy they have given to the persecuted Adventists. The Kentucky Baptist Standard says:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.8

The Adventists are entirely familiar with the laws of the land on the Sunday question, and they get in jail for the very purpose of eliciting the sympathy of the public. We do not blubber over them at all. If they want to keep out of jail let them obey the law like other decent people, and they will be certain not to get into trouble. We think the authorities in Tennessee did exactly right in enforcing the law, and believe the Sunday laws we have are good laws, and that they ought to be kept on our statute books and rigidly enforce.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.9

This is a strange utterance for a Baptist paper, and shows that intolerance has gained a foothold in that communion as well as in other churches whose past history does not justify us in expecting so much of them.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.10

The statement is false, that Adventists “get in jail for the very purpose of eliciting the sympathy of the public.” Adventists have done everything they reasonable could do to keep out of jail, except to surrender their consciences. We think the Kentucky Baptist Standard would do well to read up a little on the life of Roger Williams and the early history of the Baptist Church. Scores of Baptists have died in past ages for violating civil laws with which they were entirely familiar.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.11

REV. EDWARD THOMPAMSON, LL.D., manager of the Sunday League of America, is conducting a Sunday campaign in this State. He spoke at Syracuse on a recent Sunday, the burden of his discourse being to show that this is a “Christian” nation. Of course, the “clinching” argument was Justice Brewer’s decision in the Trinity Church case. “Dr. Thompson announced,” says the Syracuse Post, “that he expected to hold a series of meetings in the city in about six months’ time to agitate the Sunday question. Meanwhile the league, membership blanks for which were passed throughout the congregation, would busy themselves in the distribution of literature, which should set the people of Syracuse to reading, thinking and studying on the subject.”AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.12

A few thousand copies of the AMERICAN SENTINEL, judiciously distributed in Syracuse, would do very much toward giving proper direction to the thoughts of the people on this subject. Who will do it?AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.13

THE Iowa State Press, published at Iowa City, comments as follows upon the persecution of Seventh-day Adventists in Tennessee:—AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.14

This sect is quite correct in contending that the Sunday of Christian observance, and the Sabbath kept under the old law, are not the same. The first Christians changed the day to be observed as they changed divers other matters, and the new holy day first obtained civil recognition under Constantine. He allowed them to hold services openly, and protected them from heathen intolerance. We of course know nothing of the gravity of the offense, but if it was only working on Sunday, without doing it so as to annoy people who worshiped on that day, we think the laws of Tennessee should be amended, so as to give the most perfect liberty to all, to keep every day as one of rest, if they can afford it, or not keep any day if so that pleased them better, always providing that the liberty to do as they please, did not extend to preventing anyone else from doing as they pleased.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.15

We do not believe State interference in matters of belief, has ever been of any benefit, and we know it has invariably lessened respect for religion. The Adventists in Tennessee may have made themselves offensive, not by their pious observance of the old Sabbath, but by a determination to keep it in such a way as to annoy others, to whom they knew it objectionable. Like where Macaulay says the Puritans abolished bear baiting, not because they pitied the bears, but because they knew it angered the Carders who loved the cruel sport.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.16

We can assure our Iowa contemporary for the Tennessee Adventists have not intentionally disturbed anybody; indeed, we might go further than that, and say that There has been no real disturbance to anybody. Adventists are considerate, not only of the rights but of the prejudices of their neighbors. They are are [sic.] not only a liberty-loving people, and so go just as far as they conscientiously can in respecting the wishes of their neighbors. None of the work complained of in Tennessee was of a character or done in a place to be any real annoyance to anybody. The most noisy work done was putting clapboards on a house. Such work might be a real annoyance in a village, but this house stands in the woods at a distance from any other building; and the noise occasioned by the work, if heard at all by others would certainly not be loud enough to occasion any real annoyance, except annoyance such as a Protestant might feel in seeing a Catholic making the sign of the cross or sprinkling himself with holy water. Of course, this is very annoying to some people, but no person has any right to be annoyed at such things. Adventists have not made themselves offensive in any proper sense of that term; they have wronged no man; they have defrauded no man; they have trampled upon the civil rights of no man.AMS September 5, 1895, page 280.17