FROM OUR GENERAL SPRING MEETING OF MINISTERS AND ELDERS, HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, FOR PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW-JERSEY, BY ADJOURNMENTS, FROM THE 21ST OF THE THIRD-MONTH TO THE 24TH OF THE SAME, INCLUSIVE, 1778 [caption title]

[Quakers]: [American Revolution]

Verlag: [Philadelphia, 1778

2pp. Folio. Stab holes in left margin, three horizontal creases from old folds, some chipping to edges. Lightly foxed. Very good. A rare Quaker epistle, signed in type by clerk Nicholas Waln on behalf of the Yearly Meeting, urging Friends to maintain their pacifism and neutrality during the American Revolution in the face of mounting persecution. This epistle was issued during what was perhaps the most trying year of the war for Philadelphia Friends. Quakers, who had refused to take up arms or pay taxes in support of the conflict, were regularly met with suspicion and persecution by those who supported the Patriot cause. In August of 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution recommending that "the executive powers of the respective states.apprehend and secure all persons, as well among the people called Quakers as others, who have, in their general conduct and conversation, evidenced a disposition inimical to the cause of America" (Ford). Acting on that recommendation, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania rounded up forty-one people. The prisoners, held without a hearing, were offered release on condition that they swear (or affirm) allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Some, however, refused, and the remaining twenty prisoners, nearly all of them either Quakers or disowned former Quakers, were forcibly banished to the Virginia frontier where they remained until their release the following April. By then, two of the prisoners had died in custody. It is in this context that the present epistle urges Quakers to hold fast to their convictions and to maintain their commitment to pacifism and neutrality. Referring presumably to the Quaker exiles and, indeed, to all persecuted Friends, the epistle asks that "those.who are in Bonds for the Testimony of a good Conscience, and those who are subjected to other close Trials and Difficulties, in these perilous Times, be encouraged to trust in the Lord alone, who hath promised his humble People, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' Herein the Faith and Patience of the Saints will be made manifest, for the Information and Conversion of many." It urges those "of the foremost Rank in each Meeting.to lead the Way safely towards a real Reformation." Describing the Society of Friends as "a Remnant" and "a People highly favoured" whose "Spirits.are contrited" in the midst of "Declension," the epistle calls for a general "returning to the Lord." Such language, no doubt, reflects what one historian has described as "the reformation of American Quakerism," a transformation by which Friends in the period leading up to and during the American Revolution began to withdraw "from the mainstream of American society and government," turning "their attention and energy inward toward their own community" (Marietta). Notably, a postscript to the document encourages Friends "to read this Epistle in all their Meetings and Families, in the Love and Fear of God." A rare document important to both the history of civil liberties and Quakers during the American Revolution. SABIN 61683. EVANS 15801. HILDEBURN 3706. Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Vol. VIII, May 22-October 2, 1777 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907), pp.695. Jack D. Marietta, The Reformation of American Quakerism, 1748-1783 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), pp.xi-xiii. Arthur J. Mekeel, "The Relation of the Quakers to the American Revolution" in Quaker History, Vol. 65, no. 1 (Spring 1976), pp.3-18. Robert F. Oaks, "Philadelphians in Exile: The Problem of Loyalty during the American Revolution" in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 96, n. 3 (July 1972), pp.298-325. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers WRCAM63044

Bibliografische Details

Titel: FROM OUR GENERAL SPRING MEETING OF MINISTERS...
Verlag: [Philadelphia
Erscheinungsdatum: 1778