When the Board does not agree with the delegates decision of a president

What should be done when delegates of the conferences selected a president and the Executive Board does not agree with the name?

When did this happen? 1901 until 1905.

A. G. Daniels wrote a letter in 1906 setting out what happened with his election as president from 1901 and successive years.

“There was a good opportunity for the delegates of the conference and for the people to set me aside for having assumed the title of president. I was perfectly willing to be judged and dealt with by the delegates. In fact, I was willing all along to be dealt with by the whole committee, but I did object to being treated as a football by a faction whom I ventured to displease. We all know the verdict of the delegates. And, by the way, it was their own hearty, free action. They were not forced to elect me president. . . ."

What happened, is that J. H. Kellogg became very strong a leader at Battle Creek. He did not like the General Conference delegates power for they went against his wishes. He wanted a “yes-man” over whom the medical field could have control over.

So they introduced a kind of rule by amending the constitution that the final say of who will be president and treasurer should not be the delegates of the union or conferences. It should be the Executive Board. The new rule read that the Executive Board will have power to “fire” the president and replace him with someone else. That was in 1901.

So the Executive Board selected A. G. Daniels to be president in 1901. While Daniels were in England in 1902 he had differences with Kellogg’s style. He was unaware of the intentions of the amended rule.

When he came back in the USA, word came to him that Kellogg felt it necessary that A. G. Daniels should be changed to A. T. Jones.

Members of the Executive Board then saw the real impact of this new amended rule, namely to select whomever they pleased just to use the presidency as a handy tool in their own purposes. They discussed it fully with the delegates and when all became informed, they came to the 1903 Election to reappoint A. G. Daniels. And to cancel the amendment set up in 1901.

That was in 1903. Then in 1905 they had a second chance to kick Daniels out. But again the delegates felt overwhelmingly to re-elect Daniels.

When the election of the new president was done, A. T. Jones had other plans. After all, did Kellogg not felt that he should replace Daniels in 1901? He felt it was about time to get himself in.

A. T. Jones stood up in the 1905 Election meeting and objected why the candidate for presidency, A. G. Daniels, used the word “president” on his business cards when it was before his time “chairman”. Everyone was shocked why he objected because this issue was dealt with already in 1902 and later and all delegates then felt that it was not important.

Jones left Adventism some months later.

It was crisis years. It was megalomania. It was dictatorship desires. It was control mania. But despite these shadows in the dark doing their politics from whisper to whisper, the Spirit of God lead properly. A. G. Daniels was elected for 21 years.

The Kellogg boys all left the Adventist Church, E. G. Waggoner, A. T. Jones and J. H. Kellogg. They were wreckages along the way of the Work of God.

A. G. Daniels concluded that “We have been passing through a great crisis. I have desired to see and stand for true principles. The Lord has helped me in this terrible conflict. Others might have done better in dealing with the details of the controversy; but, notwithstanding all the mistakes I have made, the Lord has wrought a great victory. While there is some wreckage strewn along the way, there is nothing to what there would have been if the evil that was at work had been allowed to go on unopposed.”

So what did Ellen White say about the power of choosing a new president?

"Every member of the church has a voice in choosing officers of the church. The church chooses the officers of the state conferences. Delegates chosen by the state conferences choose the officers of the union conferences, and delegates chosen by the union conferences choose the officers of the General Conference By this arrangement every conference, every institution, every church, and every individual, either directly or through representatives has a voice in the election of the men who bear the chief responsibilities in the General' Conference."— Ellen White, Testimonies, vol. 8, pp.  236, 237.

Source: Olsen, Crisis to Victory pages 316ff.