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 2
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INTRODUCTION.
of the previous endowments of the Catholic charitable institu- tions. No latitude of opinion or faith was allowed beyond the articles of the newly prescribed creed. An imputation of heresy rested upon those who might conscientiously think for themselves; and as the churches formed again alliances with the governments, no relief could be obtained for the people from the further exactions and arbitrary control of the clergy.
This re-established connexion of church and state was un- satisfactory to the judgment and feeling of a sensible laity, and there were many independent persons, who not choosing to submit to such intellectual and moral servitude, turned their minds to the simple doctrines and injunctions of the Christian religion, which they believed to be addressed to the attention of every one; they were not satisfied with the prescribed forms adopted by the established churches, nor with any vicarious substitutes for the obligations of Christian duty; but they turned at once to the Christian example and precepts, to con- form to whatever they deemed them to require, and to reject whatever they prohibited,-and thus unswayed by fear or favour, to be accountable only to the responsibilities they en- joined.
Among these, the most steady and patient, but efficient denial of the claims of the clergy was made by the Friends,- who appeared at a later period than most of the others, to be dissentients from the established church ; and who on their rise into a society, would not admit that the clergy had any right whatever, according to Christian discipline, to the positions they had assumed, and to the control which had been in- cautiously granted them. In addition to this, the clergy had become imperious and unfeeling, supporting their power by ecclesiastical laws and authority, living very expensively upon tithes and requisitions, exacted from the people under very severe oppression.
This independent conduct became alarming to the Protestant hierarchies of England, and caused the Friends there to suffer severe contumely and persecution under the clerical power,
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INTRODUCTION.
and under the influence it had created with the government. Their members, for want of conformity, had to suffer long im- prisonments, loss of their property, distress of their families, and loss of life, which was continued until their persecutors were checked by public sympathy, for the infliction of con- tinued injustice upon an innocent and conscientious people.
In return for this course of oppression, the Friends formed no parties-they resisted no one-they returned no injury upon any one; and while they considered their own mode of life would be injurious to no government, and offensive to no society instituted for the peaceable enjoyment of religion or the protec- tion of the community, they persevered in living and conduct- ing themselves according to their own mode of worship, and their own convictions of duty.
During this time, this people was not chargeable with being useless or inadequate members of society : in their various oc- cupations they were industrious, were true to their promises and engagements, and contributed like others to the support of government.
In social kindness and sympathy, and in the requisitions of private and public duty they were distinguished, and they were prominent in institutions of high character for intelligence, use- fulness, and benevolence.
At the same time that they kept out of all political parties or religious conventions, they made every respectful appeal to the government to be relieved from the unjust sufferings they had to endure. Further than this they could not go. For they never joined in measures for supplanting or overturning the constituted authorities, because this could not be done without violating their peaceable principles-" to live in peace with all men."
They respected the powers of the government and a system of just laws as the guide of human action, and for the order and support of the structure of society.
Confiding in the benevolence of the Christian religion as capable of influencing the human heart, they believed it to be
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sufficient to remedy the evils and to correct the errors of the age; they believed, also, that if this had been the faithful ob- ject of the church, it would, long before their day, have brought the people under better discipline than could be attained by the civil government, with its code of voluminous and intricate laws.
As a contrast to the pompous establishments of the church and the state, with hierarchies, armies, and clerical parade, and after centuries of ecclesiastical controversies, how extraordi- nary was the rise and existence of a people disclaiming any connexion with the wars of the state or with the dissensions of the churches, and determining to govern themselves by a line of truthful conduct-to be guided by good-will to all mankind according to the plain dictates of truth and the philosophy of the Christian religion.
It was said of this Society by Oliver Cromwell, "Now I see there has arisen a people which I cannot win with gifts, honours, offices, or places, but all other sects and people I can."# And Admiral Penn said, among his last words to his son William Penn, soon after to become proprietary of Penn- sylvania, whom in his early life he had banished from his house for having joined the Society of Friends, "Son William, if you and your Friends keep to your plain way of living, and to your plain way of preaching, you will make an end of the priests, to the end of the world."+
Believing they had Christian authority for their existence as a religious society, the Friends established their church system independently of all civil assistance, with but few rules: these were of a practical character in conformity with the prescrip- tions of the New Testament.
They had no specific articles for their religion, written out to be adopted as required by other churches ; but an account of their belief was set forth by many experienced writers, and approved of by the Society.
* Marsh's popular Life of George Fox, p. 12.
t Sparks's Life of William Penn, 1845, p. 253.
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They relied upon the guidance of an inward principle of divine truth in the mind.
They abrogated among themselves all regard to the esta- blished clerical power, which they believed to be the assump- tion of a latter age, and that there was no authority for it in the permission of Christ, or in the practice of the Apostles ; and they would render no military service, because they believed every act of warfare to be an abrogation of the principles of Christianity.
They disconnected themselves with the civil power, and advised their members to decline appointments to civil offices, because in the required duties they might not be able to give satisfaction consistently with their principles.
Their members were recommended to practise economy, and to encourage simplicity in their domestic relations, in order to avoid inducements to luxury and show.
They took care of their indigent members, to place them in a way to obtain a maintenance ; but when their poor became aged or disabled, and could not support themselves, they were privately assisted out of the funds of the Society. In addition to this, in common with other citizens, their members supported the public poor.
They mostly settled disputes arising between their members by an arbitrament of persons specially appointed among them- selves, without an appeal to law, unless when it became expe- dient to obtain legal decisions, and their members were required by the Society to do justice to others.
The institution of marriage was performed by a public de- claration of the parties during the sitting of their friends at a religious meeting. They were not allowed the interference of any clerical authority. The witnesses were their common friends, and a certificate of the marriage, signed by themselves and the witnesses, was placed on the records of the Society.
The Friends did not conform to outward ceremonies in the Christian religion, because in the devotion of mind and conduct which it enjoined, these appeared to them to be the lesser types
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or services; and they found that when they had been made commemorative and periodical, and performed by any church officer, it led to an external and vicarious dependence, from which followed superstitious ceremonies, differing widely from the character of the original institution.
In their private meetings, which were for discipline, nothing was introduced but the business of the church; and except that this had occasionally some relation to personal concerns, the meetings might have been open to every one. The business re- lated to the general condition or economy of the church, ad- vice to its members, its finances and charities, and often to such sympathies as the Friends might be interested in, for the benefit of others.
No person presided at those meetings, for general respect preserved order ; any person was allowed to speak on the sub- jects under consideration when offered to the meeting by any of the members or produced by the clerk ; and when the meet- ing, after a general expression of sentiment, came to a conclu- sion, the clerk recorded it.
No question was ever taken or decided by a vote, to ascer- tain a majority; for the dignity of the meeting did not permit it. Arguments on subjects under consideration were openly offered and reference made to the general principles of the Society to sustain them ; but as the truth would lead to but one conclusion, it was the purpose of the meeting calmly to discover it, and a minority having a clear view of a subject, often led to the good and final judgment of the meeting; at those times when the meeting could not arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, the subject was postponed for further reflection and unanimity.
The Society acknowledged a ministry among themselves, to arise from impressions of religious duty on the part of ex- emplary and pious persons, who might preach in their public meetings for worship ; but these were to have no pay nor dis- tinction beyond their other members.
Their houses for public worship were neat, and convenient, built without ornament, but made comfortable, and were open
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to all persons who were inclined to attend them. The religious worship in their meetings was without any forms or ceremonies. It consisted in an effort of the mind to advert to their religious duties, under a belief that these would be made known by the Spirit of Truth to all persons, even when they might not be directed to them by a teacher or minister.
Under the solemnity of a silent and sedate assembly, order was always preserved; and as the Christian principles were obviously true, and necessary to be put in practice in the common walks of life, it was believed their relative injunctions would be the principal objects for religious contemplation.
The houses to meet in were not regarded as places of sanctity ; for the Friends believed that it was the members of a Christian society who constituted a church, and that, as on the occasion of the " Sermon on the Mount," they might be as pro- perly assembled there, as in the Temple.
The Friends could not give evidence on any occasion on the pledge of an Oath, not only because they believed it to be forbidden by the precepts of the New Testament, but because they claimed it to be the right of every freeman of unimpaired veracity, to have credence when he stated a fact to be true.
This caused the Friends to suffer much in England from the want of legal testimony, for about fifty years ; but they were relieved from taking oaths in 1696, by a special act of Parlia- ment, and from thence a dispensation from taking oaths was introduced into most of the colonial governments of America, and into the Constitution of the United States. From the years 1828 to 1838, several acts were passed by Parliament to dispense with the use of oaths in England, in favour of con- scientious persons, who declined to take them; and at the re- organization of the government now going on in France, pledges by oath are dispensed with in that nation.
Schools or seminaries were established by the Friends to afford the most useful course of scholastic education, from the elementary or primary institutes to the highest branches of mathematics and of classical literature, with selections from the best Latin and Greek authors, and the use of the Hebrew
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Bible. The pupils were taught under no prescriptive form of religious rules further than to secure a system of orderly and moral conduct. The schools were open for the admission of the children of all persons who approved of their course of useful and guarded education.
Their burial-places were arranged to be without ornament, display, or expense, and to be used free of any charge. Burials were permitted of all persons who were professors with the Society, and of all other persons, free of charge, who had desired to be buried in their ground.
In their native land and that of their forefathers, the religious Society of Friends had not been allowed these natural and in- offensive privileges. The power of the church, united with the power of the government, had controlled the rights of the people under laws and prejudices to such an extent, that when- ever there was a prospect of civil or religious liberty arising to restore the natural rights of mankind, it was suppressed under a pretence of its interference with the prescribed privi- leges of the clergy, or with some of the sectarian institutions having a temporary possession of power.
In looking over " The Annals of the Christian Church," as collected by an Episcopalian minister,* and lately published, the historical incidents show that the Christian spirit of meek- ness and kindness had not been in unison with it since the early ages.
It was scarcely free from the persecutions under the Roman government, when it became united with the civil power, and the records of that period give an account of the continued discords and internal dissensions which arose out of church power and supremacy, with a detail of contentious councils, excommunications, crusades, heresies, massacres, and pro- tracted deliberations upon abstract and incomprehensible matters, inquisitions to test faith in absurd doctrines, and per- secutions and martyrdoms which were inflicted upon the most virtuous people, and upon those who made attempts to reform
* See Ecclesiastical Chronology, by the Rev. J. E. Riddle, London, 1840.
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the errors of the church, or to correct the conduct of the clergy.
If the errors of those times were also those of the civil go- vernment during what was so generally called the " Dark Ages," that period was emphatically darkened under the do- minion of the officers of a church who claimed to be an edu- cated class or rank in society, and who suffered no light of instruction to come among the people. It had set up, and it had put down at will, kings and rulers in Christendom for many ages ; it annulled at will the allegiance of the people to the governments ; it controlled the circulation of the Scriptures and of printing ; it confined or dispensed all literature and know- ledge, as well as the tuition of the schools; it took out of the courts of justice any cases of crime to which, through favour- itism, the clerical power chose to afford the celebrated " Benefit of Clergy," to transfer them to the ecclesiastical courts, and dispose of them as they should see proper ; and it threatened with the punishments of the Inquisition some of the most enlightened philosophers for revealing the works of God bene- volently handed through them to mankind.
The power of the Christian Church to obtain the estates of the people, was beyond all similitude in the annals of any country.
Under the specious pleas of charity or for spiritual service or intercession, more than one half the lands in England be- came diverted from its legal descent to the lawful heirs, by be- quests made to the clergy and to the churches; and although the government passed successive statutes of mortmain during more than five hundred years to annul such legacies, the laws were fraudulently evaded by the devices of the clergy, and continued to be so, until the church power became weakened at the Protestant Revolution.
It will not therefore appear strange that professors of the Christian religion desirous to live under it in its purity, should make their escape from such scenes of distrust and confusion ; for even when the Reformation had taken place in England,
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and the Papal or Roman Catholic supremacy terminated, the Protestant part of the community was left unprepared to build up a system without its errors ; this party had still its views of maintaining a civil and clerical power, and of obtaining the wealth of the church establishments : in consequence of which it divided into contending parties.
Some of these people who emigrated and came to America, were of the highly religious professions. They escaped it is true from the control of the Protestant supremacy which had just succeeded to the Roman Catholic ; but their Exodus did not take place in that spirit of kindness to others which a com- mon suffering should have taught them : they did not extend a toleration of religion to their Christian brethren ; but instead of this, a spirit of religious domination accompanied them, par- ticularly into New England, and was engrafted into their laws and institutions.
It is now proper to advert to the Colony of Pennsylvania, to see how far it was preserved from these evils by the peculiarity of its settlement ; and it ought to be borne in mind that the So- ciety of Friends who settled that province, had dissented more materially than others from many of the civil as well as from the religious institutions in England, and therefore the support of their tenets was attended by peculiar difficulties.
All the church establishments, and the military system, and their extended interests, were in direct opposition to the views of the Friends ; and as to the legal profession, their prudential conduct was a peaceful example against its controversies, ex- penses, and impositions.
Having undergone many severe persecutions in England for their religious conduct for nearly half a century, the Friends were the last company who left there to settle in America. They availed themselves of the opportunity to emigrate under the auspices of their fellow-member William Penn, on his ob- taining, on the 4th of March, 1681, a grant of the Province of Pennsylvania from King Charles II., in order to make a peace-
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ful settlement in the western world, and to get rid of their oppressions in their native land.
They trusted with great reliance that the same principles as those of the Gospel would appear in the minds of the untutored Indians, who would become willing to participate in the offer- ing of a peaceful spirit.
Trusting also to the integrity which guided their own con- duct, they firmly relied upon their Christian faith to sustain them in a wild and foreign country, unmolested by the unfeel- ing disposition manifested by the people at home, who under the profession of Christianity, had cast aside the cardinal prin- ciples of benevolence and justice.
It was this people who convinced by their truthful conduct the natives of the country of the sincerity of their profession, and of the efficiency of their peaceful plan of settlement, and extended the toleration of religion to the members of all socie- ties. By their frame of government they granted as a char- tered right, liberty of conscience to all people who would settle in the Province; and it was the only one which had been granted to mankind by any of the professors of Christianity.
In the contemplation of this, and of the peaceful alliance be- tween the Friends and the Indian natives, Voltaire has re- corded : "It was the only treaty made with the natives of the New World which was not ratified by an oath, and the only one which has not been broken."
There are several authors who have made or extended the same remarks. In Arthur O'Leary's Essay on Toleration he says : " William Penn, the great legislator of the Quakers, had the success of a conqueror in establishing and defending his colony without ever drawing the sword; the tenderness of an universal father, who opened his arms to all mankind, without distinction of sect or party ; and in his republic it was not the religious creed, but personal merit that entitled every member of society to the protection and emoluments of the state."
The frame of government formed by the Proprietary for the inhabitants, was executed in England, 25th April, 1682. It was
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in the nature of a mutual compact, and it was not to be altered without the consent of the Proprietary and of six-sevenths of the freemen of the Provincial Council and Assembly. It was in twenty-four articles and forty laws. The law on Religious Rights is as follows :
" That all persons living in this Province, who confess and acknowledge the one almighty and eternal God to be the creator, upholder, and ruler of the world, and who hold them- selves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in no wise be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or practice in matters of faith or worship; nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship-place or ministry whatever."*
The Abbe Raynal in his History of the Indies says : " Penn's humanity could not be extended to the savages only; it ex- tended to all who were desirous of living under his laws. Sen- sible that the happiness of a people depended upon the nature of the legislation, he founded his upon those true principles of private felicity-liberty and property."
" The mind dwells with pleasure upon this part of modern history, and feels some kind of compensation for the disgust, horror, or melancholy, which the whole of it, but particularly the account of the European settlements in America inspires."t
Montesquieu, in the Spirit of Laws, has the following senti- ment on the government of Pennsylvania :Į
" A character so extraordinary in the institutions of Greece, has shown itself lately in the dregs and corruptions of modern times; a very honest legislator has formed a people to whom probity seems as natural as bravery to the Spartans.
" Mr. Penn is a real Lycurgus, and, although the former made peace his principal aim, as the latter did war, yet, they resemble one another in the singular way of living to which they reduced their people,-in the ascendency they had over freemen, in the prejudices they overcame, and in the passions which they subdued."
* See Proud's History of Pennsylvania, Appendix No. 2, page 19.
+ See Raynal, Book 18. # See 4th Book.
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Of these rights to the natural gifts of Providence as far as they could be secured by the Proprietary to his fellow-beings, they were fully sensible. It gave them the first practical assu- rance-" That all men are created equal; that they are en- dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
For the welcome reception which the natives of the country gave to the emigrants they deserved the kindness which was shown them, and they were sensible of this when they re- ceived it.
In consequence of the quarrelsome conduct of the colonists on the north and on the south of Pennsylvania, the fiercest wars with the natives had ensued ; but in this Province they joined in with the peaceful spirit that prevailed, and became kind and friendly,-so that love and respect without fear governed their relation to each other.
In the agreements made between the natives and the govern- ment or settlers, there were considerations of mutual benefit.
The natives granted amicably the liberty of settlement, oc- cupation of the soil and residence, and these afforded a mutual accommodation of their interests, tending to an increase of their happiness.
The settlers introduced among the natives improvements in the adaptation of the country for agriculture, and social life, then commencing in the western world, and soon to come among them.
" The publication of this settlement and of the frame of government, spread through Europe, and added to the celebrity and filling up of this colony from many of the kingdoms and states, surcharged with oppressed inhabitants, under the feudal system."* And under such an equitable arrangement for mutual benefit, as long as the affairs of the colony were under the control of the Friends, for about seventy years, there were no differences with the Indians, for they were satisfied that their rights and interests were respected equally with the rights of any other people in the Province.
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