Pioneers of a Peaceable Kingdom: The Quaker Peace Testimony from the Colonial Era to the First World War

by Peter Brock

Overview

Extracted from Pacifism in the United States, this work focuses on the significant contribution of the Quakers to the history of pacifism in the United States.

Originally published in 1971.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691647388
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/19/2016
Series:	Princeton Legacy Library , #1613
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

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Pioneers of the Peaceable Kingdom

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By Peter Brock

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 1968 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-00573-7

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CHAPTER 1

The Society of Friends in the Colonial Period outside Pennsylvania

The peace testimony of the colonial Quakers was, we have seen, as much an outgrowth of the parent society in Britain as were the other elements of the faith, which the "First Publishers of Truth" brought with them on their journey across the ocean. This Anglo-American Quaker connection remained lively and close well into the nineteenth century. Yet, despite the manifold similarities in belief and practice, the peace witness of the colonial Quakers was never an exact reflection of that of Friends back in Britain, for in this New World the Quaker pioneers, like their fellow citizens of other faiths, had to face a complex of factors — geographical, political, economic, and religious — differing in many important respects from that existing back home. For the Quakers, a greater share in affairs of state (and this not only in Pennsylvania) and also, in many cases, greater insecurity in daily life introduced new problems in their attempt to create a fellowship of men and women dedicated to the achievement of a society without violence.

Quakerism was brought to the New World in the second half of the 1650's. Within a few decades adherents of the "Truth" (as its followers boldly called their faith) were to be found organized in compact meetings in most of the Atlantic coast colonies as well as in a number of the islands of the British West Indies. Important Quaker settlements soon arose in the existing colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York (then New Netherlands), Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas and also, with their opening to colonization, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (along with Delaware). In the eighteenth century small Quaker groups came into being in Georgia as well as in Maine, to which Friends had found their way in the previous century. Only in Connecticut did Quakerism meet with scarcely any response during this period. Indeed, "by the middle of the eighteenth century there were more Quakers in the Western hemisphere than in Great Britain," even though by this date the early missionary vigor that had aimed at bringing the whole world speedily into the spirit of Christian truth had given way to the cultivation of a narrower sectarian ethos, which sought to preserve intact the virtues of a "peculiar people."

Among the colonial Quakers, as in Britain, strict adherence to the peace testimony was maintained by the imposition of sanctions against those who deviated from it. Those members who strayed and would not express regret for their offense were dealt with in the same way as those who transgressed other precepts of the discipline, expulsion from the Society being the final step against any who remained impervious to admonition and exhortation. At this time there were still very few Friends who urged that, although pacifism should remain a collective witness of the Society, it would be better for the individual to decide exactly what stand he should take in regard to military service or self-defense. A nonpacifist Quaker like Penn's secretary, James Logan, or Anthony Benezet, the pacifist expatriate Frenchman who favored a relaxation of the discipline in regard to the peace testimony, remained isolated figures, and it was not until the twentieth century that the Society finally came to adopt their position (at least unofficially).

The main issue dominating the history of the Quaker peace testimony in colonial America was, of course, military service. Outside Pennsylvania, conscription for the local militia was in force in all the provinces for almost the whole period. Only in Rhode Island did the law give Friends complete exemption. Elsewhere, exemption, where provided for, was granted only on terms that were usually unacceptable to them, for Quakers would neither pay the required fine in commutation of service which they believed to be wrong in itself nor hire another man to perform it in their stead, as the law also sometimes permitted. Obduracy of this kind often brought distraint of property — frequently far in excess of the amount of the fine — and sometimes imprisonment. However, there existed considerable variation in the rigor with which the law was enforced. In times of peace, and in small communities where the sincerity of Quaker objections was well known to their neighbors, law enforcement was mild, and delinquents often escaped without penalty. Indeed, the drills of the militia were at times more social than martial affairs. But, when a war scare occurred or when actual fighting had broken out, the Quakers often suffered considerable hardship as a result of their refusal to fight; and such occasions were not rare in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America, for, with the Indian border not too far from any of the settlements and with the long coastline and the Caribbean islands open to attack from Britain's European enemies, whether Dutch or Spanish or French, and from marauding privateers who were also active in periods of nominal peace, war conditions were present most of the time. On such occasions, too, men of military age might be called out by special decree to participate in expeditions against the enemy outside their province.

Periodic musterings of the local militia and occasional summonses to active service at a distance did not exhaust the military demands that might be made of young Quaker males. They could also be required to take their turn in armed watches to guard against foreign invaders or indigenous marauders and could be called up for labor in building fortifications and military encampments. Moreover, in the New England coastal areas Quakers, especially those who had chosen the sea as their career, were sometimes subjected to impressment into the royal navy. Occasionally, too, cases are recorded where soldiers, coming under the influence of Quaker ideas while in the service, developed a conscientious objection to further military duties.

Quakers who were not liable to direct military service also had to face problems in adjusting their pacifist beliefs to the demands of Caesar. Here, perhaps, taxation was the most trying issue. From the beginning, as we have seen, most Friends had felt that there was nothing inconsistent with their peace testimony in paying what they called taxes "in the mixture," that is, taxes of which only a part went for the support of war. They dutifully paid ordinary taxes to the government in time of war, too. There was less unanimity, however, in the case of special war taxes, where it was known that the whole sum paid would be used to carry on war. "George Fox himself paid war taxes," and so did a number of other leading Friends in the early days. Others refused. (And, of course, payment of any kind of assessment that could be at all construed as an alternative to direct military service was forbidden to Friends.) The tax issue in its relation to the peace testimony was, as we shall see, to be vigorously debated among colonial Friends, some of whom advocated nonpayment not only of war taxes but of mixed ones, too. Finally, in the American Revolution, nonpayment of most taxes to an administration engaged in waging war against the traditionally established government became the official policy of the whole Society.

In their businesses many Friends took great care to avoid all support of warmaking, although there were still others whose laxness in this regard became a matter of concern to the Quaker meetings and had to be dealt with by them. The chief offenses were the manufacturing and trading of articles of war, the arming of vessels, either owned by members of the Society or used for shipping Quaker goods, and involvement in privateering.

Behavior in consonance with the peaceful principles to which the Society laid claim was demanded of every individual member. Naturally, since American Quakerism was a society made up of ordinary human beings, and not saints (although it did, indeed, produce several saints of the caliber of John Woolman), harmony among its members and between members and nonmembers was not always maintained. But members of the Society were expected to show an example of nonviolence in their daily lives, even if lapses from this high standard would inevitably occur. And, if the dispute were one between fellow members, Friends were forbidden to go to law until every attempt had been made to settle the affair by arbitration.

However, at least during this period, Quaker pacifism differed from the Anabaptist-Mennonite variety in its positive attitude toward the nonmilitary functions of the state. Not merely in Pennsylvania during the years of Quaker rule, but in Rhode Island, and much more briefly in New Jersey, Maryland, and the Carolinas, Friends participated in the government and legislature. In this sphere the practice of the Society in America during this period differed radically from that of its parent Society in Britain, which, as a body of religious dissenters, was by the law of the land effectively excluded from all part in government. But politics meant compromise, and we shall find, both in Pennsylvania and in the other colonies where Friends had access to power, that their peace testimony became to some extent adjusted to the demands of expediency. Still, they continued as a body to bear witness to a nonviolent way of life.

Throughout the colonial period the question of self-defense against Indian attack, especially where Quakers were settled in frontier districts, constituted not merely an academic exercise in pacifist dialectic but an issue that all might be called upon to face at some moment in their lives. The same was true for the Caribbean islands, where the sometimes more bloodthirsty pirate or privateer took the place of the marauding Indian. The history of Quaker Indian policy falls outside the scope of the present study except insofar as it bears directly on their pacifism. The essence of this policy, both as carried out by individual Friends and as expressed in the actions of the Quaker regime in Pennsylvania, lay in their desire to deal justly with the Indian peoples, giving a fair price for their lands and settling only with their prior assent, dealing equitably with them in trade, and refraining from corrupting them by the sale of hard liquor. When Pennsylvania departed from this policy (against the wishes of its Quaker legislators), bitter warfare eventually followed.

The American Indians with whom colonial Friends came into contact apparently remained unmoved by the Quaker message, despite occasional attempts by men like William Penn and John Woolman to reach them. Although there were Indians who showed some understanding of the indwelling God of the Quakers ("the good Spirit"), no converts were made. At times Quakers not only attempted to let their actions toward the Indians explain the nature of Quaker pacifism without the intermediacy of words, but tried also to expound the nature of the Society's nonviolent faith to them. A moving example of this latter approach is recorded in the autobiography of Samuel Bownas (1676-1753), a traveling minister, who in 1702 found himself in jail on Long Island (N.Y.) for speaking out against the Church of England. During his incarceration he was visited by "an Indian King" and three of his chiefs, who were able to converse in English. When the king inquired of Bownas what the differences were between Quakers and other Christians, Bownas sought among other things to elucidate the Quaker peace testimony. Christians outside the Society, he told his inquirers,

... held it lawful to kill and destroy their enemies; but we cannot think that good and right in us; but rather endeavour to overcome our enemies with courteous and friendly offices and kindness, and to assuage their wrath by mildness and persuasion, and bring them to consider the injury they are doing to such as can't in conscience revenge themselves again. He assented, that this was good: but who can do it? said he; when my enemies seek my life, how can I do other than use my endeavour to destroy them in my own defence? My answer was, That unless we were under the government of a better spirit than our enemies, we could not do it; but if we are under the government of the good Spirit, which seeks not to destroy men's lives, but to save them, and teaches us to do good for evil and to forgive injuries, then we can submit to Providence, putting our trust in the great God to save us from the violence and wrath of our enemies. The King said, Indeed this is very good; but do you do thus when provoked by your enemies? I said, sundry of our Friends had done so, and been saved from the rage of their enemies, who have confessed our Friends to be good men. Ay, said he, they are good indeed; for if all came into this way, there would then be no more need of war, nor killing one the other to enlarge their kingdoms, nor one nation want to overcome another. I then asked him, if this was not a right principle; and what would much add to the happiness of mankind? They all four said, it was very good indeed; but feared few would embrace this doctrine. I said, all things have their beginnings; and 'tis now our duty to embrace this truth, hoping that others by this example may do the same. They lifted up their eyes as a token of their assent, shewing by their words their desire that this good spirit might prevail in the world: Then, said they, Things will go well.

The records of the period contain plentiful illustrations of the kind of nonviolent approach to personal defense that Bownas describes here as being the practice of members of his Society. Far more frequently than his coreligionists back in Britain, the American Friend was to find himself in situations of potential violence that would test this belief.

Quaker pacifists at their best, whether in America or in Europe, bore witness to their beliefs in both a negative and a positive fashion — in the one case, by an uncompromising refusal to meet the military demands of Caesar and, in the other, by an outflow of love for their fellowmen, whether heathen Indians or Christians belonging to "enemy" nations. This witness remained circumscribed in its dimensions, however. There was little attempt, until the arrival of John Woolman and a handful of Friends who shared his outlook, to think through the social aspects of the peace testimony, to understand how Friends' protest against war and their refusal to resist attack by violence were related to shortcomings in the existing political and social order, in particular to the evil of slavery and to inequalities in wealth. With the exception of the practical experiment in peaceable government carried out in Pennsylvania, the American Quaker communities of the colonial period failed to examine the possibilities of creating a peaceful international order; no works were produced on this continent to parallel the schemes for international peace of the English Quakers, William Penn and John Bellers. In neither Britain nor America at this time had thinking within the Society matured to the point of exploring ways and means of setting up a nonviolent technique of dealing with aggression, whether inside society or from outside invasion.

Sources for the history of Quaker pacifism in the colonial period are plentiful enough, but (except for those relating to the Pennsylvania experiment) they do not easily lend themselves to a chronological treatment, nor can they readily be used to give an overall picture of the colonial scene. Each colony, after all, enjoyed a completely autonomous existence, dependent only upon the mother country; each had its own separate constitution and political and religious institutions, though derived from the same British roots; each moved to a large extent along separate lines of historical and economic evolution. Yet common factors there certainly were, factors which, developing in the course of the eighteenth century, led eventually with the war as catalyst to the creation of a united Republic out of these disparate provinces. In colonial Quakerism, likewise, there were common threads present which knit the Society throughout the different colonies into a community with, in this case, virtually one mode of worship and similar ways of life. On the other hand, here also the divergence in development, which dominated the overall American picture, was mirrored in the life of the Society of Friends. Autonomous organizations sprang up in New England, New York, Pennsylvania (together with Delaware and New Jersey), Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. In these areas the peace witness of Friends, though it followed roughly the same pattern in each, can best be illustrated by separate treatment. This, therefore, will be the method adopted in the more detailed account given below.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Pioneers of the Peaceable Kingdom by Peter Brock. Copyright © 1968 Princeton University Press. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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Table of Contents

• Frontmatter, pg. i
• Preface, pg. vii
• Contents, pg. ix
• Introduction, pg. xi
• Chapter 1. The Society of Friends in the Colonial Period outside Pennsylvania, pg. 1
• Chapter 2. The Pacifist as Magistrate: The Holy Experiment in Quaker Pennsylvania, pg. 63
• Chapter 3. Quaker Pennsylvania: The Crisis of 1756 and Its Aftermath, pg. 115
• Chapter 4. Quakers and the American Revolution, pg. 141
• Chapter 5. The Quaker Peace Testimony, 1783-1861, pg. 217
• Chapter 6. The Quakers in the Civil War, pg. 273
• Chapter 7. The Quaker Peace Testimony, 1865-1914, pg. 340
• Bibliography, pg. 359
• Index, pg. 375