“The real cause of the Civil War was camouflaged by both South and North. Neither liked to admit that the fate of the Negro slave was the underlying reason why they fought; yet none today deny that this was the smoldering base which finally burst into the conflagration; and certainly the most significant result was the abolition of slavery.”59
The first time the Adventist people as an organized body had to face the issue of war and their relationship to it, was at the outbreak of the Civil War in the U.S.A.”
At the onset of the war the problem of recruiting men for the army was insignificant, because the army was made up strictly of volunteers. As the war continued and there was a great loss of human life, the government instituted a draft system. The new draft law, issued on February 24, 1864, granted individuals who belonged to a religious denomination three options. They were:
(1) hospital service,
(2) care of the freedmen, and
(3) the payment of $300. Here is the exact wording of this draft law:
Act of Congress, February 24, 1864, Sec. 17: “And be it further enacted, that members of religious denominations, who shall by oath or affirmation declare that they are conscientiously opposed to the bearing of arms, and who are prohibited from doing so by the rules and articles of faith and practice of said religious denominations, shall, when drafted into the military service, be considered noncombatants, and shall be assigned by the Secretary of War to duty in the hospitals, or to the care of freedmen, or shall pay the sum of three hundred dollars to such persons as the Secretary of War shall designate to receive it, to be applied to the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers: . . .”60