Christian History Institute Presents Pastwords #123: Exiles in Virginia with Observations on the Conduct of the Society of Friends during the Revolutionary War --Official Papers of the Government ©2007

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 personal 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 peaceably 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, according to their stations, to prevent it in others.

The liberty enjoyed by the people of these States, of worshipping 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 society or the state can with propriety expect or demand, and remain 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 defense) 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.

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 Philadelphia, 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 themselves 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 contest between Great Britain and America, and the uniform tenor of the conduct and conversation of a number of persons of considerable wealth, who profess themselves to belong to the Society of people commonly called Quakers, render it certain and notorious that those persons are with much rancour and bitterness disaffected to the American cause."That as those persons will have it in their power, so there is no doubt it will be their inclination 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 certain seditious publication addressed, 'To our Friends and Brethren in religious profession, in these and the adjacent Provinces,' 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 connection highly prejudicial to the public safety not only in this but in the respective States of America."

This we apprehend is the whole of the charge exhibited against that Society in general, or us as individuals. In consequence 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 conduct 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 therefore given the public an account of the arbitrary manner in which the Council executed these recommendations of Congress, and refused to hear us in our defense, it well be unnecessary here to repeat it; we shall therefore proceed 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 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 America, whose parents, wives, children, friends, and connections, 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 know to the Congress, it would have been so far from affording grounds for persecution, that it would have amounted to a justification against the insinuations of 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 judgement 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 knowledge, but must have procured whatever information they had from our enemies.

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 offense, 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 banishment, before we even knew that we were accused; and that, not for any crime, but for the tenor of our conduct and conversation; 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 bear his defense.

The charge of having it in our power to communicate intelligence 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 stead 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 permission of Divine Providence have latterly prevailed, we have steadily maintained our religious principles in these respects, 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 established 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 improper 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 acknowledgement of guilt in the article of giving intelligence to the commander of the British forces," and we would have surrendered our right to be heard in our defense, had we been weak enough to have submitted to this for the sake of a short and uncertain 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, forbear remarking further on it until it comes in the order of publication, to be considered as a part of the proof against us.

To the last part of the charge we say, that if after the example of the primitive churches to maintain a correspondence with our brethren in religious fellowship; to communicate and 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 correspondence and connection has always been maintained and preserved among us, nor has it ever been interrupted or considered 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 adversaries 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 pretense 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 accusation against a few individuals; to be more pointed at the peaceable principles we profess and wish to put in practice, than at any personal behavior 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 now proceed to examine the evidence accompanying it; and we trust it will be found insufficient to prove any offense 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 testimony dated the 24th day of the same month if 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 carrying 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 if 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 although these papers are calculated to discourage the unwary from being led into such inconsistencies, yet there is no sentence in them that could justly give offense 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 Congress themselves have declared in 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 government, with all the devotion that principle and affection can inspire, 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 prosperity 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 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 misunderstand 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 sufferings 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 injunctions 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 determining 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 enjoyed tranquility 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 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, will be sufficient to explain and show the expediency of them."

About the time this epistle was sent forth, some instances happened of persons of our Society being seized when on their lawful business, without even the colour of law to authorize it, and confined, for refusing to bear arms or find substitutes in their room; and from others, tests not warranted by any law, were attempted to be extorted by military officers. These arbitrary proceedings led the meeting to consider that they youth and the unwary might be intimidated into a departure from those principles in which they had been educated, and which they professed. To prevent which they thought it their duty to give forth their brotherly caution and advice; nor can any who are willing to allow liberty of conscience to the Society, condemn them. It should be observed, that all these papers were printed and openly dispersed among our members, and some of them were sent to the members of Congress then in Philadelphia, before they appeared abroad. Ad they contained any thing seditious or unwarrantable, why was not a disapprobation of them then expressed? Why was the censure of them deferred until near nine months after the date of the last of them? But when the subject of this epistle is duly considered, it must evidently appear to be intended to discourage the members of our Society from bearing arms in all cases whatsovever. How then can men professing candour apply it to any particular case, and interpret it as a seditious publication, evidencing that the authors were with much rancour and bitterness disaffected to the cause of America?

"The happy Constitution under which we and others have long enjoyed tranquility and peace," are words which, we understand, have given offense to some of those who have been engaged in forming a new one; they have thought it derogatory to their skills as legislators, that a work which they had rejected, should be spoken of with so much respect. But we who have known the happiness enjoyed in Pennsylvania under the mild administration of so wholesome a form of government, cannot but express our regret that it was so little esteemed as to be wholly set at nought. It was formed by a man, who as a worthy ancient of our Society, and a wise legislator, stands as high in the page of history as any of his cotemporaries; in framing it, he consulted with a number of our ancestors who held the same noble principles with himself, and adapted it so wisely to the purposes of a free government, that the learned Montesquieu, in his Spirit of Laws, bears this testimony in favour of him and his work. 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. William Penn is a real Lycurgus; and though 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 ascendancy they had over freedom; in the prejudices which they overcame; and in the passions which they subdued."

The experience of near an hundred years has evinced the truth of this learned man's observation; and it was but a just tribute to the memory of the honourable founder, to notice the happiness enjoyed under the "generous plan of liberty" handed down from him. And when it is considered that under his constitution, no superiority was allowed to one religious society over another, but all were put on the footing of brethren entitled to an equal share of that liberty which is the gift of Heaven-that no persecution was ever waged by any persons exercising power under it, and that as soon as it was overturned and a new form introduced, a spirit of persecution was raised, that threatened our Society, the descendants of the first settlers, with the loss of their religious liberty, which their ancestors had purchased at so dear a rate,--and that actually began to hold cognizance over our consciences,--it cannot, therefore, be matter of wonder that such expressions were used in the epistle referred to; and we believe a great majority of the people of Pennsylvania concur in our opinion.

Upon the whole, this epistle is couched in terms so full of Christian charity, that we cannot, as we before observed, but be surprised that such invidious reflections should be cast upon it. We have been the longer in our observations on this paper, because it has been the pretext for much calumny and abuse of the Society.

Although this epistle was never inserted in any of the public papers with the privity of the meeting, yet illiberal censures have been cast upon it for republishing it, and it has been represented to be done with a view "to discourage the militia of Pennsylvania from marching at a time of danger." This is another instance of the uncandid construction put upon the acts of Society.

The Assembly of Pennsylvania prepared a bill last spring, to compel all persons under particular circumstances to subscribe a test, and published it for the consideration of the people at large; this, together with the reasons that subsisted at the time of first issuing the epistle, was though a sufficient cause for reviving it, by directing it to be again read in some of our religious meetings: whatever other publication of it was made, was not with the concurrence of the Society; and indeed if such revisal was in reality so improper at that time, how is it to be accounted for, that it should again be published by authority of Congress, who now so freely condemn it, at a time much more critical than either of the former-namely, at the late approach of the British army to Philadelphia? But men are often insensible of absurdities when they occur in a favorite pursuit!

We come now to the minutes of the several monthly and quarterly meetings, which were illegally forced out of the hands of the clerks, by virtue of a general warrant, with a design to furnish evidence against us. But whatever effect might have been expected from them, they will be found wholly void of offense. And here it may be proper for the information of such as are unacquainted with our method of transacting business, to observe, that at the time our ancestors separated themselves from other religious societies, and formed themselves into a body, divers law subsisted, with which they conceived it their religious duty not actively to comply; they were of course subjected to forfeitures and penalties which, by the defect of the laws in not guarding against the malice of their persecutors in making excessive distresses, were so heavy upon many, as to impoverish and ruin them. It became the concern of their brethren to relieve and assist such as well by counsel as by supplying their necessary wants; for this purpose a committee of the Society was appointed by the name of the Meeting for Sufferings, which has been continually kept up in London for Great Britain, Ireland.

To this meeting the inferior meetings send an account of all the sufferings in support of our testimony, from time to time. When our forefathers settled in America, they established, as occasion required, the same Christian discipline for the well ordering of the affairs of the Society, as had been used and approved in England; and among others a Meeting for Sufferings was appointed, and has been kept up for many years at Philadelphia, for Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and in the course of their proceedings, the minutes now published were sent from the several monthly to the quarterly meetings, in order to be by them forwarded to the Meeting for Sufferings, that through it the Yearly Meeting might be informed of the state of the Society, and of the trespass upon the sufferers. Nor is this new among us, or calculated for the present occasion, but the constant, uniform practice of our Society. As to the matter of those minutes-it is a plain narrative of facts, incontestably true, and notorious in the places where they happened. Nor is the manner of them exceptionable, as all the expressions are true in themselves, and descriptive of the several matters alluded to.

We are now to take notice of the papers said to be found among the prisoners' baggage on Staten Island; and we regret that our justification requires us to use language, which in other circumstances we would wish to avoid. We do, however, with a firm confidence undertake to say, that so much of those papers as imports that the intelligence there mentioned was given from a meeting of our Society, is a direct falsehood and forgery; and although we have never yet seen the original papers, nor heard of the circumstances attending the finding of them, so as to enable us to search for proof in vindication of our brethren in that part of the country, or to discover the marks of deceit which generally accompany counterfeits, yet we trust sufficient evidence appears upon the face of the publication to warrant our assertion.

General Sullivan, in his letter to Congress, dated Hanover, 25th August 1777, speaks of "one from the Yearly Meeting of Spanktown," but whether it was intended that the whole of what follows should be considered in that light, or only those six lines entitled "Intelligence from Jersey, 19th August, 1777," and subscribed, "Spanktown Yearly Meeting," we cannot determine; but will show that no part is chargeable on any of our members; and in order to arrive at the greater precision, we shall speak of the three articles separately.

The first consists of eight questions, which at first view are found to be such as must come from persons seeking intelligence, and not from those who were to give it. We may therefore safely conclude that this was not the work of any of our members, but merely a set of instructions to the officers of the British army, to direct their inquiries in case they should meet with persons capable of giving information.

The second is the paper said to come for Spanktown Yearly Meeting; and indeed it is unfavourable for the contriver of this piece of business, that he had not obtained better information concerning our meetings in those parts, and attended a little more to the dates of events; and it is happy for us, deprived as we are of all opportunity of clearing up the matter by other evidence, that he has put into his composition several things which wholly destroy its credit.

And first, it is highly improbable that any body of people would subscribe a paper containing intelligence which, if detected, would endanger their lives. Persons concerned in such dangerous transactions always avoid describing themselves in such a manner as to be known to the opposite party, in case their correspondence should be intercepted; and the members of any meeting must be supposed to be idiots before such conduct could be believed of them. Besides, the constant practice of all our meetings every where, is that no paper issues from them without the signature of the clerk, or some other persons in their behalf, as all the genuine papers published by order of Congress, show.

Secondly.--There is not, and never ahs been, a yearly meeting of our Society held at Spanktown, as the inventor of this affair might have known had he made the least inquiry. It is true that a quarterly meeting is held at Rahway, part of which place, we understand, is known by the nickname of Spanktown, but never so called in any of our proceedings. The paper published immediately before the extract of General Sullivan's letter, shows the manner in which that meeting is styled by the Society, to wit, "our quarterly meeting, held in Rahway." This meeting was held and finished on the 18th day of that month, and we are assured by one of our company now confined at Winchester, who attended it, at every sitting from beginning to end, that no paper, or intelligence of any public nature, kind, or tendency whatsoever, was made therein.

But lastly, the author of this counterfeited paper, besides his want of knowledge of the meetings, the times at which they are held, and the names by which they are called, has been guilty of an oversight in the date of his intelligence, equally fatal to the credibility of his work. He makes his newly constituted Yearly Meeting at Spanktown say, "It is said General Howe landed near the head of Chesapeake Bay, but cannot learn the particular spot, nor when." He dates this the 19th day of August. From the public papers we find that the fleet containing General Howe's army was on that day, at or near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, and that it did not arrive at Turkey Point, near the head of it, till the 22nd, of which the earliest intelligence was brought to Philadelphia on the 23rd, and might have reached Spanktown and Hanover on the 24th or 25th; before which time the paper in question could not have received its present form. How then can it be true that it was framed at Spanktown on the 19th, as itself imports, or that it was found on Staten Island on the 22nd, as General Sullivan has asserted!

We submit these facts to the consideration of the public, not doubting but they will acquit our Society of being the authors of it, whatever opinions they may entertain of any others.

The third article is a letter dated Sunday, July 28th, 1777; but as it is not even insinuated to be written by any of our members, and carries in its date a style not used by our Society, it is unnecessary to observe further upon it, than that it is here transposed (as was done in a former instance), in order that it might pass with the unthinking for a work of the pretended Spanktown Yearly Meeting.

These observations, we think, are sufficient to show that nothing contained in our "several testimonies" supports the charge exhibited against our Society; but on the contrary, that the welfare of mankind, and extending the glad tidings of peace on earth, and good will to me, was the only aim of the authors of those papers. And with respect to our conduct and conversation, we need say no more than that our characters have been such as to be proof against the general calumny of any body of people whatever, and will remain so until evidence supplies the place of assertion.

Before we conclude, it will be proper to observe upon another circumstance, which fully shows that our persecutors were satisfied of our innocence before they executed their unjust sentence upon us, although they had not the candour to acknowledge their error by doing us justice.

It appears by the resolves of the Congress and Council, dated the 5th of September, that both those bodies, after all the fears and jealousies they had expressed, were willing to enlarge us, if we would have "sworn or affirmed allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania." This was a direct relinquishment of all the charges exhibited against us, and from that moment we stood in no other point of view than offenders against the Act of Assembly commonly called the Test Law; if by that law we were not compellable to subscribe the test, then have the Council punished us without any other authority than their own arbitrary will, and they might with equal justice have apprehended and sent from their families, every inhabitant who had declined taking it.

As we declined accepting our liberty on those terms, it may not be improper to consider the nature of tests in general, and show that our refusal to take those offered to us, was not a breach of the law, nor punishable in any manner whatever.

That no government ever derived stability from tests imposed on the people at large, is a fact notorious to every person conversant in history. If the constitution and the administration of justice be such, that the inhabitants derive the blessings of liberty from it, their common interest in supporting it, forms the surest obligation; if it be otherwise, men of ambition who have interested views, by oppressing the people, are the only persons who would propose to continue it be enforcing them under the dread of perjury, to submit to arbitrary laws.

Designing men have never failed to cloak their ambition under specious appearances; they are ingenious at forming plausible pretexts for withdrawing their allegiance from the sovereign or state to whom they have sworn it, nor can an instance be found of oaths preventing a revolution. The allegiance sworn by the Long Parliament to Charles the First, did not hinder them from bringing him to the scaffold-nor the tests taken by General Monk and his army to the Commonwealth of England, prevent them from restoring Charles the Second to the crown.--They are in fact nothing more than an engine to oppress the more virtuous part of the people. Witness the use made of them during the days of Cromwell, and for some years the Restoration. Many of the peaceable conscientious inhabitants were grievously persecuted for refusing them, while those, to check whom they were principally intended, took them and observed them no longer than it suited their views. During that unhappy contest we find abundant reason to reject the use of tests. The same persons for the sake of the places they held or coveted to hold, were induced to swear and recant many direct contradictions in the course of a few years, to the great dishonour of religion, and the weakening the force of every moral obligation.

Every conscientious man when he submits to the solemnity of an oath or affirmation, means to perform it in the fullest sense; but how can any man who takes a test to either of the contending parties, be sure in the present unsettled state of affairs, that he can hold his integrity a single week? The face of things may in a few days be changed, and by the events of war he may fall into the hands of the opposite party, and be tempted for the safety of his property, his life, or his family, to do some act in violation of his solemn engagement to the great injury of his conscience; nor will the common excuse of force serve him in the hour of reflection as a palliation, for the mind not being subject to compulsion receives a lasting wound wherever it assents to any evil for the ease of the body.

Nor is it a practice among nations at war, to compel the peaceable inhabitants of an invaded country to swear fidelity until by the ratification of peace it is confirmed to the conqueror; and if there be some instances to the contrary, they have been condemned by all writers of liberal sentiments.

If it be objected that in times of difficulty it is necessary to bind suspected persons by an oath or affirmation of fidelity, we answer that some cause of suspicion should be proved against a man before he is publicly stigmatized, and if upon a hearing he cannot clear up the suspicions, it is then time enough to call for surety for his good behavior.

These observations, we hope, will be sufficient to convince the candid that general tests are inconsistent with true liberty, unnecessary in the present situation of America, and subversive of the morality of the inhabitants.

But if in any circumstances it be necessary for the Legislature to enact a general test law, such test can never authorize the executive powers to inflict heavy punishments on those who have never committed any breach of it.

The power of the Council of Pennsylvania in a business of this nature, is nothing more than that of justices of the peace, which is given to them as counselors by the Declaration of Rights. This power could neither be enlarged nor abridged by the recommendations of Congress. We must therefore consider the Council as acting in that capacity. And a bare perusal of the test law is sufficient to show that no justice had power to tender it to men who quietly stayed in the county where they usually resided; and as none of us were found beyond the limits prescribed, we never could be considered as liable to the penalties of refusing it; and even if we were, the measure of the punishment has been exceeded an hundred fold. With what face then can any set of men pretend to assert the cause of liberty who are found in so flagrant a violation of its most essential parts? What security can the inhabitants of Pennsylvania have for the enjoyment of their unalienable rights under governors who have thus publicly substituted their own arbitrary will in the place of their own positive law.

Thus, we apprehend, we have fully answered and refuted every charge and suspicion that has been published against us, and have shown that the proceedings of the Council of Pennsylvania founded upon the recommendation of the Congress, have been a violent exertion of power against right. And we cannot but be sorry that the Congress should have given rise to such a course of conduct, and in the progress of it, have countenanced it.

They listened to insinuations without any just ground, the authors of which were concealed-they censured a whole religious Society with which they were very little acquainted-they condemned a number of innocent individuals of that Society upon the general charge of their conduct and conversation, without hearing them in their defense-they caused the Council to apprehend them and many others, and consented to their banishment to a distant country before any legal conviction-and published to the world the groundless suspicions and falsehoods by which themselves had been misled, in order to excite prejudices against others.

When a number of us whom they had accused and condemned, applied to Congress for a hearing, they left it to the option of the Council to grant it or not at their pleasure, and recommended such a hearing as is not known in any free country, to wit, to hear what we could allege to "remove their suspicions;" thus instead of a fixed charge being supported against us, the burthen of proving negatives was to be thrown upon us. And when the Council refused even such a hearing, Congress, who profess to be the guardians of American freedom, suffered the Council to send us away from our families at a time when the noise of armies engaged in battle approaching the city, was heard within the walls of our habitations, when our tender wives and helpless children required a double portion of care and attention from us.

Had we been allowed to defend ourselves before an impartial tribunal, as every man who boasts the rank of a freeman is entitled to when his character is called in question, we should not now have had occasion to trouble the public with a written defense, which we have endeavoured to make as concise as the nature of our case would admit; and we trust that our attempt to vindicate ourselves as individuals and as a religious Society, who have ever been generally reputed useful members of the community, will not be unacceptable to those who wish to know the truth and judge for themselves.