July 26
(Psalms 47-49; Acts 26)
No man in all of history fought as hard or as long to abolish slavery as William Wilberforce did throughout his life. A member of the British Parliament, he introduced anti-slavery measures year after year for 40 years until he retired in 1825. On this day in 1833, as he lay dying, word was brought him that the bill to outlaw slavery everywhere in the British empire had finally been passed. The dream for which he had struggled for decades was now within sight of fulfillment.
Wilberforce had not always been such a vigorous opponent of slavery, of course. As a youth he was a witty, somewhat dissipated man about town who had misspent his time at Cambridge and squandered his considerable talents on silly amusements. He was a member of the high society elite and he reveled in it.
A friend of William Pitt—who later became Prime Minister—and himself a member of Parliament, Wilberforce seemed assured of a bright political future. But then in 1784, after winning his election in Yorkshire, he accompanied his sister to the Riviera for her health. As an afterthought, Isaac Milner, a tutor at Queen's College Cambridge and acquaintance from college days was asked along.
Milner had become a deeply pious evangelical Christian. He began to share his testimony with the vacationers—particularly urging Wilberforce to commit his life to Christ. Wilberforce had always thought himself a Christian. But it became evident to him that a total commitment to Christ was demanded by the nature of the Gospel itself. He struggled in anguish for several months. Part of that time he read Philip Doddridge's The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Here was a faith far deeper than anything he had known. Gradually he yielded.
After he returned home he had to wonder if it was proper for him to hold a seat in government. He confided his dilemma in Pitt. The ever-ambitious Pitt, wanting Wilberforce as an ally, urged him to remain. Still unsettled in his conscience, Wilberforce spoke to John Newton. Best remembered as the author of the hymn Amazing Grace, Newton had been converted while a blasphemous sailor and slaver. He counseled Wilberforce to remain in politics as the champion of good causes.
Several of his new evangelical friends suggested that he take up the slavery issue. Even Pitt requested it. After many doubts, Wilberforce decided it was what God wanted. He also felt he must tackle causes which would raise the standard of life and morals in England. The friends who gathered around him became known as the Clapham Sect because most lived in the village of Clapham.
Rarely in history have so many owed so much to so few. These dozen or so Clapham men and women not only fought against slavery but also against every other sort of modern vice. Many were wealthy—and they employed their worldly goods on behalf of godly causes. Everything from education for the poor masses, support of Bible societies, and private relief organizations to protection of day laborers, creation of Sunday Schools, and establishment of orphanages received their attention.
But it was the abolition of slavery which remains their greatest achievement—Wilberforce died content just days after his triumph.
Also on This Day in History:
1775 Benjamin Franklin was named the first Postmaster General when the 2nd Continental Congress established the United States Postal System.
1788 After a bitter debate, New York became the eleventh state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1874 Russian conductor, composer, and double bass player, Serge Koussevitsky, was born in Vishny-Volotchok. He went to Paris after the Russian Revolution and eventually became the conductor ot the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. He was instrumental in promoting the works of contemporary American composers as well as commissioning such works as Symphony of Psalms (1930) by Igor Stravinsky.
1875 Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung was born in Kesswil, Switzerland, the son of a Protestant minister. Jung pioneered several aspects of psychology such as word association, the idea of "complexes," the concept of the personality types introvert and extrovert, and the collective unconscious of all humans as displayed in universal desires, symbols, mythologies, religions, and primordial images. Jung attempted to create a state of wholeness of self through understanding how the personal unconscious integrated with the collective unconscious. He also wrote extensively on the relationship of psychotherapy and religious belief.
1882 Richard Wagner's last opera, Parsifal, was premiered at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. The story is set in the middle ages and deals directly with the Holy Grail legend. Wagner develops his compositional ideas of the leit-motif to their greatest evolution with specific musical ideas representing the Last Supper, the Grail, Faith, Parsifal and other characters, and Good Friday.
1908 U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte—a distant relative of the family of Napoleon—issued an order creating an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labor Party despite having led the nation to victory over the nazi menace in the Second World War. Clement Attlee, the Socialist candidate, became the new prime minister.
1947 President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1948 President Truman signed a pair of executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the US armed forces and federal employment.
1952 Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at age 33.
1968 Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical, Humanae Vitae—of human life—banning birth control and all other child killing procedures from abortion to infanticide.
1989 Mark Wellman, a 29-year-old paraplegic, reached the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park after hauling himself up the granite cliff six inches at a time over nine days.
The motives to a life of faith are infinite.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
Originally published July 26, 2001.
