In a similar way, various elders and evangelists of several congregations in Tennessee met at place called Beech Grove, Tennessee, in 1862, and they would draft a letter to President Jefferson Davis. Jefferson Davis, of course, was the President of the Confederacy. They specifically requested in this letter that Christians, members of the church, be exempt from military service. And, in the letter they would outline in much detail the concept of brotherhood and of unity, and so on. And, they declared that the South’s draft law would bring “indestructible distress” to Christians who object to military service. Well, as a result, the Confederate government granted “conscious objector” status to the Christians. And, after the war was over, David Lipscomb claimed that Tennessee Christians had been almost a unit—a military term there—but he would say that they were almost a “unit” in refusing military service.

Well, on the other hand, there were thousands—tens of thousands—no doubt, of Christians on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line who did enlist in the armies, including Alexander Campbell’s son, who wore the Confederate Gray, and Barton W. Stone, Jr., as well.

There were some preachers on both sides who did support the war effort. James Garfield, James A.Garfield, became a Colonel in the Union Army, and he made recruiting speeches on the steps of churches. He persuaded many of his former students at Hiram College—this is Hiram, Ohio—to join his regiment. And Colonel Garfield fought from Shiloh to Chickamauga. He would, after the war, be elected to congress, and he would finally, then, of course, become President of the United States. [Before serving as a decorated general in the Union Army and later as Twentieth President of the United States, James A. Garfield was one of the first presidents of Hiram College. Garfield was president of Hiram (then named the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute) from 1857 to 1861.]

In the South, brethren like T. B. Larrimore, B. F. Hall [Dr. Benjamin Franklin Hall, 1803-1873, Faithful Gospel Preacher Of The 19th Century, Doctor, Dentist & Minister], Addison and Randolph Clark, Austin McGreary and several others wore Confederate Gray.

There were two men, Benjamin Franklin [1812 – 1878] and Tolbert Fanning, who illustrated the tension which many Christians felt between, as they termed it, “the demands of God and the demands of Caesar.” Each man was, in his particular day, and in his particular region of the country, very, very popular in the 1860’s. Benjamin Franklin [1812 – 1878] was very popular in the North, and Brother Tolbert Fanning in the South. Each one was a pacifist, and when the Civil War came along, they would each be very strong in their sectional loyalties, but they would still counsel taking the path of being a pacifist, and not being involved in the war itself.

Franklin [1812 – 1878] was criticized for not allowing political issues to be discussed in his journal. The journal that he authored was The American Christian Review. And, he would protest this criticism in this wise: He would say that he had “not one spark of disloyal feeling toward the Union that he loved, but he loved it only next to the government of God.” So, that was his response to this criticism.

Tolbert Fanning, on the other hand, believed just as strongly in the right of the Southern cause. He believed that the war was caused by, as he called them, “infidel preachers,” and he named men like Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Ward Beecher, who, he said, “trampled underfoot the Word of God and the Constitution.”

Was the South justified in resisting the Union? Well, Fanning replied, “If people were ever justified in resisting encroachments, we conscientiously believe the citizens of the Confederate state are.” But then, he hastened to add, “All this we have spoken as citizens of the world, and not as a member of the family of God.”

Well, notwithstanding their strong regional or sectional loyalties, both Franklin and Fanning believed that the Christian had a higher obligation, and this demanded that he stand aloof from the Civil War. As Franklin wrote, “We will not take up arms against, fight, or kill the brethren we have labored for twenty years to bring into the kingdom.” Similarly, Fanning counseled Christians to avoid military service. In July, 1861, He said, “Both parties claim the sanction of heaven and very earnestly call upon God for help. Both cannot be right.” He added this: “It may be that God intends to prove His people, and the war may be the occasion for the test.”

Four years later, a man of the North also noted sadly that “North and South both prayed to the same God and read the same Bible.” He, like Fanning, saw the war as God’s judgment on both North and South. But, he said humbly, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” The one who made that statement was named Abraham Lincoln.