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"One of his Britannic Majesty's Commissioners, and the fifth Commissioner therefore remained; ready as by their attendance, they officially announced, at all times, to assist in the formation of a Board, for the dispatch of business. But they have never since been met by any Commissioner on the part of America."

The British Commissioners have returned to England, and the dispute, of which I shall say something at the close of this Volume, remains still unsettled, in May 1801.

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DEFENCE OF THE QUAKERS OF PENN

SYLVANIA.

THE following Letter to the Editor of the AntiJacobin Review, was written at New-York, in the month of May, 1800, though it was not delivered to the Editor till April, 1801.

SIR,

I TAKE up my pen to discharge a duty, which I ought to have discharged a long time ago.

Your Review for August 1798, page 137, contains a very serious charge against the Quakers in general, and those of Pennsylvania in particular. In your censure of the English Quakers, for refusing to contribute towards a fund, the avowed object of which was the defence of the kingdom against invasion, I heartily concur. I perfectly agree with you, that their alleged objection was a" pitiful subterfuge;" and the tenderness and generosity, which they voluntarily and eagerly displayed towards the French and Dutch prisoners of war (a circumstance that I wonder you never noticed),

ticed), but too clearly indicate the bias of their political inclinations and affections.

But, Sir, while I object to all the particular tenets of the Quakers, more especially those on which they ground their refusal to contribute towards the defence of the State and the maintenance of the Church; while I decidedly disapprove of the conduct of some, at least, of the English Quakers, during the present contest, and strongly suspect them of partiality for the levelling, the bloody, and blasphemous French, that justice, for which you have ever been a zealous and able advocate, calls upon me to defend the character of the Quakers of Pennsylvania, particularly with regard to the transaction to which your charge against them more immediately refers.

In speaking of that tenet (a ridiculous one I allow) which requires Quakers to bear testimony against every species of fighting, you ask, "whether they have uniformly adhered to the pacific tenor of their faith, by refraining, on all occasions, from the use of arms in open war?" And hereupon you state, that, " during the contest between "Great Britain and the Colonies, the Quakers of "Pennsylvania actually bore arms against their "mother country; and one of them, named Mifflin, attained the rank of General.'

Give me leave, Sir, to communicate to you that information on this subject, which, had you been in possession of it in the year 1798, would, I am certain, have prevented the above statement from appearing in your valuable work.

Soon after the breaking out of the rebellion, (on the 20th of November, 1776,) the Quakers of Pennsylvania put forth a declaration of their principles, entitled, "The ancient Testimony of the People called QUAKERS renewed, with respect to the King and Government, and touching the Commotions

now

now prevailing in these and other Parts of America addressed to the People in general." In this declation, which was signed by John Pemberton, in the name of the whole Society, and published in the city of Philadelphia, the Quakers made the following unequivocal avowal of their attachment to the King and his Government :

"It hath been our judgment and principle, since we were called to profess the light of Christ Jesus, manifested in our consciences unto this day, that the setting up and putting down of Kings and Government is God's peculiar prerogative, for causes best known to himself: and that it is not our business to have any hand or contrivance therein; nor to be busy bodies above our station, much less to plot and contrive the ruin, or overturn any of them, but to pray for the King, and safety of the nation, and good of all men; that we may live a peaceable and quiet life, in all godliness and honesty, under the King and Government which it hath pleased God to set over us."-After disapproving of the inflammatory and seditious publications of the day, the declaration concludes by calling on the people of America, "firmly to unite in the abhorrence of all such writings and measures, as evince a desire and design to break off the happy connexion we have hitherto enjoyed with the kingdom of Great Britain, and our just and necessary subordination to the King, and those who are lawfully placed in authority under him."

Such, Sir, were the principles, openly professed and promulgated by the Quakers of Pennsylvania; how exactly they correspond with those of the Church of England need not be pointed out to you. Nor did the Quakers of Pennsylvania, like too many other societies that we have seen in the world, content themselves with a mere profession

of

of their principles: they adhered to them with unshaken constancy, through a long series of troubles, of hardships, of dangers, and of persecutions.

The declaration which I have quoted, failed not to excite against the Quakers the hatred and malice of the Whigs. Paine, who had just entered on that career, which has since rendered him so notorious, had the infamy to begin the attack. The Quakers, and their loyal declaration, form thẹ subject of no small part of his several numbers of that abominable work called the Crisis, through the pages of which he ridiculed, traduced, and reproached them; till, at last, he had the audacity to mark them out as fit objects of punishment, in which he was, however, no more than the tool of Reid, Bryan, M'Kean, and other leading rebels of the day. An extract or two from the writings of this traitor will form a higher eulogium on the Quakers of Pennsylvania than any that I can pro

nounce.

"All we want to know in America is simply this, who is for Independence, and who is not?. Those who are for it, will support it, and the remainder will undoubtedly see the reasonableness of their paying the charges; while those who oppose or seek to betray it, must expect the more rigid fate of the gaol or the gibbet. There is a bastard kind of generosity, which, by being extended to all men, is as fatal to society on one hand, as the want of true generosity is on the other. A lax manner of administering justice, falsely termed moderation, has a tendency both to dispirit public virtue, and promote the growth of public evils, Had the late COMMITTEE OF SAFETY taken cognizance of the declaration of the Quakers, and proceeded against such delinquents as were concerned therein, they would, probably, have prevented the treasonable plans which have been since

concerted.

concerted. When one villain is suffered to escape, it encourages another to proceed. It has been a matter of general surprise, that no notice was taken of the incendiary publication of the Quakers of the 20th of November last; a publication evidently intended to promote sedition and treason, and to encourage the enemy.'

This persuasive eloquence was soon followed by the effect, which the malignant wretch, who made use of it, intended it to produce. A memorial drawn up in the name of the Whigs of Philadelphia, and signed by a blood thirsty-printer, named Bradford, and others, was presented to a gang of revolutionary plunderers, denominated the COUNCIL OF SAFETY, calling for justice on the heads of those Quakers who were concerned in the declaration. This memorial, from which one would imagine, that Hebert, Marat, Prudhomme, and the other scribbling cutthroats of France, borrowed their invocations to pillage and massacre, concluded in these words: "We, therefore, request the Council of Safety to take into their consideration the paper signed John Pemberton; and, if it shall appear to them to be of a dangerous tendency, or of a treasonable nature, that they would commit the signer of it, together with such other persons as they can discover were concerned therein, into close custody, until such time as some mode of trial has ascertained the full degree of their guilt and punishment; in doing of which, the Council ought to disregard the man, his connexions, interests, riches, poverty, or principles of religion, and to punish with the utmost rigour."

On this profligate and sanguinary memorial Paine reasoned thus:-" The most cavilling Tory cannot accuse the memorial of containing the least ingredient of persecution! The free spirit, on which the American cause is founded, disdains to

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