1864 SLAVERY & MORMONISM WILL DESTROY AMERICA. Sermon on 13th Amendment and Importance of Sabbath Schools.

A superb thirty-two page, 2500 word unpublished manuscript sermon or address delivered to a Sabbath School or Sabbath School Convention immediately after the 13th Amendment passed the Senate! 

The 1864 vote of an Oregon Democrat would see the 13th Amendment pass the Senate. Unfortunately, the House would fail to move it forward just two months later. Our author assumes, based on the Senate vote apparently, that the issue is settled. This would place the address somewhere in April to June of 1864.

The author's time is spent almost exclusively warning of the ongoing dangers of Slavery and Mormonism. Both these issues had America in or on the edge of war. The Utah War was on again and off again, with large sections of Utah Mormons consolidating at Provo in anticipation of the attack from the Federal troops. And the Civil War was in full swing with no end in sight. The feeling of real, impending danger, of present judgment, is evident throughout the address.

And this is where the message turns its corner. What can save these Sabbath School students in these perilous times? And what will save the Country? Only a thorough knowledge of Scripture will prevent and retrieve people from heresy [Mormonism] and wickedness [slavery]. The Sunday School here is seen as playing a pivotal role in the welfare of the nation. 

An excellent period example. 

 Extracts include: 

 “. . . Our Southern brethren brought up and nurtured in and by slavery no doubt believed (many of them) that it was a divine institution.  The Turk in his Harem of fifty wives believes that he is doing the duty he owes to God . . . [that] unless he lives up to the teaching of the Koran, he can never go to heaven there to revel in the arms of beautiful houses which they believe people heaven . . .  

“We have some perverted education in our own happy country, which has created a conscience entirely at variance with our notions of right and wrong, of religion and sound morality.  I do not for a moment suppose that the leaders and originators of their sect (I allude of course to the Mormons of Utah) believe the doctrine which they teach and have taught but the lay members do most firmly believe, especially those born and bred in the tainted atmosphere of this the foulest blot that stains or ever stained (with the exception of slavery) . . . and in my opinion it is the darkest cloud now hanging over our country . . .  

“If the things in the human mind can be so perverted by misdirected education, if it can be so led astray as to be made to believe that wrong is right or to live in direct opposition to the laws of justice, morality and of God, how important it becomes that we look closely at the education of the rising generation . . .  

“How important than that each one of us . . . may not be directed by a spurious quotation [from Scripture] . . . Let me entreat you therefore to be diligent in getting your lessons . . . All such information will be useful . . . 

“Civil government should be understood by each one who lives in this free Republic;  free from now henceforth, for with ratification of the constitutional amendment by Oregon, making the twenty-ninth or three fourths of all the states, the constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery has become the supreme law of the land, which no state can legally nullify."

Very good condition. No indication we can trace of locale. The closing line absent, but not substantially effecting the address.