USA > Virginia > Exiles in Virginia : with observations on the conduct of the Society of Friends during the revolutionary war ; comprising the official papers of the government relating to that period. 1777-1778 > Part 18
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In acknowledging the order of government and of society, and in rendering it their support as good citizens, they were always useful and distinguished ; and their views as a religious Society were respected and esteemed.
Soon after the institution of the present form of government, they found it to be their duty to appoint a committee of their Yearly Meeting to wait upon the President, General Washing- ton, by a respectful address, which was delivered to him in per- son; this address is so expressive, both of their sincere and loyal feelings, and of the character of the Society, it is thought
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proper to insert it. That their conduct had been fully under- stood by General Washington, will appear in his reply, and this may be valued not only as an expression of his sound judgment, but which assuredly would not have been given except upon just and impartial consideration.
The following is a copy of the very interesting address to the President of the United States, (George Washington,) presented him by a deputation from the Society of Friends, in 1789, and of his reply.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
THE ADDRESS OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY CALLED QUAKERS, FROM THEIR YEARLY MEETING FOR PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, DELA- WARE, AND THE WESTERN PARTS OF MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA.
Being met in this our annual assembly, for the well ordering the affairs of our Religious Society, and the promotion of uni- versal righteousness, our minds have been drawn to consider that the Almighty, who ruleth in Heaven and in the kingdoms of men, having permitted a great revolution to take place in the government of this country, we are fervently concerned that the rulers of the people may be favoured with the council of God; the only sure means of enabling them to fulfil the impor- tant trusts committed to their charge, and in an especial man- ner, that Divine wisdom and grace vouchsafed from above, may qualify thee to fill up the duties of the exalted station to which thou art appointed.
We are sensible thou hast obtained a great place in the esteem and affection of people of all denominations, over whom thou presidest, and many eminent talents being committed to thy trust, we much desire they may be fully devoted to the Lord's honour and service, that thus thou mayest be an happy instrument in his hands, for the suppression of vice, infidelity, and irreligion, and every species of oppression on the persons
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or concerns of men, so that righteousness and peace, which truly exalt a nation, may prevail throughout the land, as the only solid foundation that can be laid for prosperity and hap- piness.
The free toleration which the citizens of these States enjoy, in the public worship of the Almighty agreeably to the dictates of their consciences, we esteem among the choicest of bless- ings, and we desire to be filled with fervent charity for those who differ from us in matters of faith and practice ; believing that the general assembly of saints is composed of the sincere and upright-hearted of all nations, kingdoms, and people, so we trust we may justly claim it from others ;- a full persuasion that the divine principle we profess, leads into harmony and concord, we can take no part in warlike measures on any occa- sion or under any power, but we are bound in conscience to lead quiet and peaceable lives, in godliness and honesty among men, contributing freely our proportion to the indigencies of the poor, and to the necessary support of civil government ; ac- knowledging those that rule well to be worthy of double honour, -having never been chargeable from our first establishment as a religious Society, with fomenting or countenancing tumult or conspiracies, or disrespect to those who are placed in authority over us.
We wish not improperly to intrude on thy time or patience, nor is it our practice to offer adulation to any. But as we are a people whose principles and conduct have been misrepre- sented and traduced, we take the liberty to assure thee, that we feel our hearts affectionately drawn towards thee, and those in authority over us, with prayers that thy presidency may, under the blessing of Heaven, be happy to thyself and to the people, that through the increase of morality and true religion, Divine Providence may condescend to look down upon our land with a propitious eye, and bless the inhabitants with the continuance of peace, the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and enable us gratefully to acknowledge His manifold mercies.
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And it is our earnest concern that He may be pleased to grant thee every necessary qualification to fill thy weighty and important station to his glory, and that finally, when all ter- restrial honours shall pass away, thou and thy respectable consort may be found worthy to receive a crown of unfading righteousness, in the mansions of peace and joy for ever.
Signed in and on behalf of the said meeting, held at Phila- delphia, by adjournment, from the 28th of the 9th month to the 3d of the 10th month inclusive, 1789.
(Signed) NICHOLAS WALN, Clerk.
THE ANSWER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TO THE ADDRESS OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY CALLED QUAKERS, FROM THEIR YEARLY MEETING FOR PENNSYLVANIA, NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE, AND THE WESTERN PARTS OF MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA.
Gentlemen,-
I received with pleasure your affectionate address, and thank you for the friendly sentiments and good wishes which you express for the success of my administration, and for my per- sonal happiness. We have reason to rejoice in the prospect, that the national government, which, by the power of Divine Providence, was formed by the common councils, and peace- ably established with the common consent of the people, will prove a blessing to every denomination of them; to render it such, my best endeavours shall not be wanting. Government being among other purposes, instituted to protect the persons and consciences of men from oppression, it certainly is the duty of rulers not only to abstain from it themselves, but, ac- cording to their stations, to prevent it in others.
The liberty enjoyed by the people of these States, of worship- ping Almighty God agreeably to their consciences, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights. While men perform their social duties faithfully, they do all that
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society or the state can with propriety expect or demand, and re- main responsible only to their Maker for the religion or mode of faith which they may prefer or profess. Your principles and conduct are well known to me, and it is doing the people called Quakers, no more than justice to say that (except their declining to share with others in the burthens of common defence) there is no denomination among us, who are more exemplary and useful citizens. I assure you very especially, that in my opinion, the conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness ; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be as extensively accommodated to them, as a due regard to the protection and essential interest of the nation may justify and permit.
(Signed) GEORGE WASHINGTON.
The following " Observations" are deemed too important to be placed in the Appendix. Though closely connected with the Narrative, they could not from their nature form a part of it.
They offer a clear and candid exposition by the Exiles of their sense of the wrongs under which they suffered.
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OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARGES
CONTAINED IN SEVERAL RESOLVES OF CONGRESS,
AGAINST THE SOCIETY OF PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS IN GENERAL, AND SOME MEMBERS OF THAT SOCIETY IN PARTICULAR,
Who, with several of their fellow-citizens, were banished from the city of Phila- delphia, and are now confined at the town of Winchester, in Virginia.
THE subscribers, inhabitants of Philadelphia, having been imprisoned and sent into banishment to a country where they are strangers, in so precipitate a manner that they had not an opportunity of defending themselves against the pretended offences laid to their charge, think it a duty they owe to them- selves and their country, (whose true interests they trust they have at heart,) to make some remarks on certain publications made by order of Congress, containing reflections on the Society of people called Quakers, in general, and intended to justify the extraordinary proceedings against them.
These publications consist of certain resolves of Congress, passed between the 28th day of August and the 5th day of September, and of eleven papers mentioned in those resolves, and published in consequence thereof.
It appears from the resolve of the 28th day of August, that a committee appointed to take into consideration certain papers referred to them, reported, " That the several testimonies which have been published since the commencement of the present con- test between Great Britain and America, and the uniform tenor of the conduct and conversation of a number of persons of con- siderable wealth, who profess themselves to belong to the Society of people commonly called Quakers, render it certain and noto- rious that those persons are with much rancour and bitterness disaffected to the American cause. " That as those persons will
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have it in their power, so there is no doubt it will be their in- clination to communicate intelligence to the enemy, and in various other ways to injure the counsels and arms of America. That when the enemy, in the month of December, 1776, were bending their progress towards the city of Philadelphia, a cer- tain seditious publication addressed, ' To our Friends and Brethren in religious profession, in these and the adjacent Pro- vinces,' signed John Pemberton, in and on behalf of the Meeting of Sufferings held at Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the 20th day of the 12th month, 1776, was published, and as the committee was credibly informed, circulated among many members of the Society called Quakers throughout the different States. That there is strong reason to apprehend that those persons maintain a correspondence and connexion highly prejudicial to the public safety not only in this but in the re- spective States of America."*
This we apprehend is the whole of the charge exhibited against that Society in general, or us as individuals. In con- sequence of which, resolves were formed to recommend to the Council of Pennsylvania to apprehend and secure eleven persons by name, and all others who had in their general con- duct and conversation evidenced a disposition inimical to " the cause of America," and " that the records and papers of the Meetings of Sufferings in the several States, be forthwith secured and carefully examined, and that such parts of them as might be of a political nature be forthwith transmitted to Congress."
As we have heretofore given the public an account of the arbitrary manner in which the Council executed these recom- mendations of Congress, and refused to hear us in our defence, it will be unnecessary here to repeat it ; we shall therefore pro- ceed to examine the charges insinuated against the Society in general; the application of them to us in particular ; and to remark on the papers published in support of those charges.
And first we acknowledge that we are members of the * See page 284, of Appendix, for a copy of this Address.
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Society of people called Quakers, which can be no cause of offence, inasmuch as our religious principles have been known and tolerated for a century in every part of the world where any of us have lived ; and if some of that Society are possessed of considerable wealth, yet we cannot see why that should be made a part of the accusation against them, unless it were shown that it was dishonestly acquired or improperly applied ; that we are disaffected to the true interests of America, so far as we are capable of judging of them, we positively deny ; and rancour and bitterness are so opposite to the precepts and doctrines of the Gospel, in which we believe, that to be actuated thereby, would render us inconsistent with ourselves, and deprive us of that character which our general conduct has obtained, nor can it be reconciled to common sense, that natives of Ame- rica, whose parents, wives, children, friends, and connexions, and whose estates are here, should be inimical to a country in whose prosperity their happiness depends.
The several testimonies published by the representatives of our Society do declare the principles we profess with respect to war; but we deny that they can be justly construed into disaffection to the interests of America, as will clearly appear when we have remarked on them. The uniform tenor of our conduct and conversation we trust, has been so peaceable and inoffensive, that had it been known to the Congress, it would have been so far from affording grounds for persecution, that it would have amounted to a justification against the insinua- tions our enemies have suggested.
We believe this is the first instance in history where men have been apprehended and condemned upon so general a charge as the tenor of their conduct and conversation, when there was so little intercourse between the judges and the parties, that they could form no judgment but from the reports of others ; such was the case with us that none of the delegates in Congress could determine what they had against us of their own know- ledge, but must have procured whatever information they had from our enemies.
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If the accusation originated with themselves, they as accusers ought not at the same time to have been our judges-and if they were not our accusers, as judges they ought to have stated some particular offence, and confronted us with the witnesses to support the charge. A criminal committed after a fair trial by a jury of his country is always asked, what he has to say why sentence should not be passed upon him, in pursuance of the verdict? We were condemned and sentenced to banish- ment, before we even knew that we were accused ; and that, not for any crime, but for the tenor of our conduct and conversa- tion ; such a mode of administering justice is sufficient to alarm every freeman in America, for no man can be safe while those in power will listen to the whispered accusation of a concealed enemy, resolve that the party is guilty, and refuse to hear his defence,
The charge of having it in our power to communicate intel- ligence to the enemy, may with equal justice be made against every member of Congress, but it is a new species of reasoning to infer from thence that it would be their, or our inclination so to do ; for we well know the consequence of a discovery, and it might as well be inferred, that because we had it in our power, so we were inclined to destroy ourselves.
But besides that security which the laws have provided to prevent such communication, we are bound by a more solemn tie than any human laws can make ; for, as we have heretofore declared in a paper addressed to the President and Council of Pennsylvania, " Although at the time many of our forefathers were convinced of the truth which we, their descendants now profess, great fluctuations and various changes and turnings happened in government, and they were greatly vilified and persecuted for a firm and steady adherence to their peaceable and inoffensive principles, yet they were preserved from any thing tending to promote insurrections, conspiracies, or the shedding of blood ; and during the troubles, which by permis- sion of Divine Providence have latterly prevailed, we have steadily maintained our religious principles in these respects,
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and have not held any correspondence with the contending parties as is unjustly insinuated, but are withheld and restrained from being concerned in such matters by that divine principle of grace and truth which we profess to be our guide and rule through life ; this is of more force and obligation than all the tests and declarations devised by men."
If even such an inclination had appeared, (which we firmly and utterly deny,) we apprehend no system of law hitherto es- tablished ever gave cognizance over the inclinations of the subject, unless we recur to the Popish Inquisition, where we acknowledge precedents for the proceedings against us may be found ; and before we leave this subject, it may not be im- proper to answer an objection of the President and Council, which, though no part of the original charge, appears among the resolves of Congress now under consideration. They assert that " few of the Quakers among these, are willing to make any promise of any kind." This we declare is not a true state of the fact, for we were taken up and confined for refusing to enter into an engagement, conceived in such terms as implied an ac- knowledgment of guilt in the article of giving intelligence to the commander of the British forces," and we would have sur- rendered our right to be heard in our defence, had we been weak enough to have submitted to this for the sake of a short and un- certain respite from banishment; we should have given some colour of probability to the suspicions they entertained, and drawn a blemish on ourselves which our conduct never merited.
With respect to the charge of "a seditious publication," dated the 20th of the 12th month, 1776, we cannot but express our surprise that any thing contained in the epistle from the Meeting for Sufferings, of that date, could be so misunderstood or perverted as to be styled seditious ; we shall, however, for- bear remarking further on it until it comes in the order of pub- lication, to be considered as a part of the proof against us.
To the last part of the charge we say, that if after the ex- ample of the primitive churches to maintain a correspondence with our brethren in religious fellowship; to communicate and
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receive a state of the society ; to encourage one another in a steadfast and upright walking in the pure principles of the Gospel, and preserve the uniform practice of the precepts of our holy Redeemer in the members of the Society wherever they are dispersed-if this is highly prejudicial to the public safety, then indeed is our Society culpable ; for from our first appearance as a people upwards of a century ago, such a cor- respondence and connexion has always been maintained and preserved among us, nor has it ever been interrupted or con- sidered as prejudicial by any government under which we have lived till the present instance. And to deny us this right of admonishing our members to keep to their religious principles, and to avoid every thing which has a tendency to lead them astray, would be to deprive us of the benefit of that toleration which our ancestors obtained through many severe trials and persecutions, and which they purchased as their inheritance in this country at the dear rate of leaving their native land, to encounter the hardships and perils of settling a wilderness at their own expense, and which was after some time confirmed to them in every part of the British empire. This toleration our Society has never abused, and we dare challenge our ad- versaries to prove a single instance where any of our meetings have been, or now are perverted to any thing prejudicial to the public safety.
From the whole of this charge, and the manner in which we have been treated under pretence of its being applicable to us, it seems rather intended to pave the way for depriving our religious Society of the enjoyment of toleration, than an accu- sation against a few individuals ; to be more pointed at the peaceable principles we profess and wish to put in practice, than at any personal behaviour in this time of calamity; and to be a revival of that cruel persecution which raged with much rancour and bitterness in New England, about the middle of the last century, against the members of our Society, rather than a prosecution of offenders against the public good.
Having made a few observations on the charge, we shall
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now proceed to examine the evidence accompanying it ; and we trust it will be found insufficient to prove any offence against the Society in general, or us in particular. But before we proceed, it is worthy of notice, that in order to fix the work of a printer upon the Society, the publishers have transposed the papers out of the order of time in which they were originally given forth. The epistle dated the 5th day of the 1st month, 1775, was published without its knowledge, in a New York paper, with a preface affixed by the printer, and with a design to make the sentiments therein expressed, appear as a work of the Society; the testi- mony dated the 24th day of the same month is first inserted, and the epistle of a prior date, with that preface, follows. By thus artfully introducing it between two of their papers, the unwary are induced to believe it was a performance of the Society. We just hint at this matter to show what unfair means are used to excite unjust prejudices ; and now return to the papers.
The subject-matter of the first three are a declaration of our Christian principles, and an earnest exhortation to the members of our Society to avoid entering into any measures then carry- ing on for obtaining a redress of grievances, tending to lead them into warlike preparations, which are so opposite to the basis on which our religious system is founded, that the one cannot exist with the other. To persons who are acquainted with us, and our testimony against all wars and fightings, this cannot appear strange ; nor will any, when they are informed that we have invariably professed these principles to the world for more than a century, be surprised that the representatives of our Society should endeavour to caution our members against a conduct inconsistent with their profession ; and al- though these papers are calculated to discourage the unwary from being led into such inconsistencies, yet there is no sen- tence in them that could justly give offence to other Christian professors, who are not united with us in this respect. The clauses distinguished by italic characters, are far exceeded in expressions of attachment to the king and constitution of Great Britain by what the Congress themselves have declared in
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divers of their publications, even of later date than some of these, some instances of which we here subjoin.
DECLARATION OF CONGRESS TO THE PEOPLE, DATED JULY 6TH, 1775.
" Our forefathers, inhabitants of Great Britain, left their native land to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom, at the expense of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from whence they removed.
" Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored."
ADDRESS OF CONGRESS TO THE KING, JULY 8TH, 1775.
" Attached to your Majesty's person, family, and govern- ment, with all the devotion that principle and affection can in- spire, connected with Great Britain by the strongest ties that can unite societies, and deploring every event that tends in any degree to weaken them, we solemnly assure your Majesty that we not only most ardently desire the former harmony between her and these Colonies may be restored, but that a concord may be established between them upon so firm a basis as to perpetuate its blessings uninterrupted by any future dissensions, to succeeding generations in both countries, and to transmit your Majesty's name to posterity adorned with that signal and lasting glory that hath attended the memory of those illustrious personages whose virtues and abilities have extricated states from dangerous convulsions, and by securing happiness to others, have erected the most noble and durable monuments to their own fame."
From these quotations it is evident, that if the professions of
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attachment to the British government contained in the papers in question were criminal, the Congress were not less guilty than the authors of the papers.
The fourth paper is that styled in the minutes of Congress a seditious publication, and upon a careful revisal of it, we think it strange that men of common sense should so far misunder- stand it as to give it that epithet. It begins with an affectionate salutation "To our friends and brethren in religious profession," to whom only it is directed, and exhorts them to a reliance on Him who has promised to be with his faithful followers always even to the end of the world ; it cites a text from the New Testament, encouraging them to bear with patience the suffer- ings they may have to undergo ; it recites a passage of an epistle from our ancient friend George Fox, dated in the year 1685, reminding them " that by keeping in the Lord's power, and peaceable truth, which is over all, and therein seeking the good of all, neither outward sufferings, persecutions nor any outward thing, which is below, will hinder or break their heavenly fellowship in the light and spirit of Christ," from whence it infers " that we may with Christian firmness and fortitude withstand and refuse to submit to the arbitrary injunc- tions and ordinances of men, who assume to themselves the power of compelling others, either in person or by assistance, to join in carrying on war, and of prescribing modes of de- termining concerning our religious principles, by imposing tests not warranted by the precepts of Christ, or the laws of that happy Constitution under which we and others long en- joyed tranquillity and peace; the remaining three paragraphs contain nothing but general though earnest exhortations to our members, to adhere to the principles they profess ; nor have the publishers thought proper to distinguish any part of them as obnoxious. Let us then examine if the former parts have any tincture of sedition in them. And we have no doubt but a statement of a few facts, well known at that time in Penn- sylvania and New Jersey, will be sufficient to explain and show the expediency of them.
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