Philadelphia Quakers and the American Revolution-Blog Post #3

Paine's Attack on the Quakers in American Crisis II

In the Second American Crisis, Paine led an unremitting attack on the Quakers, distorting their December 20 epistle to suit his needs and those of the revolutionary government. He attacked their alleged affinity with the British government, citing the epistle as "a publication evidently intended to promote sedition and treason," which was clearly not a sound portrayal of the document. The "happy constitution" that the Quakers referred to was not the British constitution but the 1701 Pennsylvania constitution from which they derived many of their rights. Regardless, Paine, as well as the leadership of the province, was well aware that this claim was not true. But it didn't matter. Having the Quakers as a convenient scapegoat was a propaganda advantage, a ready-made tool to exploit for political gain. For Paine, nonetheless, the December 20 epistle was an example of lawlessness that could not go unpunished.

At this juncture near the end of 1776, there was vast discrepancy between Tom Paine's view of the Quakers and those of the Quakers themselves. As the Quakers pushed for religious liberty, Paine accused them of being hypocritical, corruptible, subversive, and a threat to the revolutionary movement and to America itself. Those were hefty accusations. But a more nuanced look revealed a religious group that refused to engage in a war against Great Britain because that was there position from the beginning. The Quakers' position dated back to the English Civil War, as their sect was conceived and brought to fruition. The War for Independence was no different than the French and Indian War for them. Unlike other religious groups of the time, the Quakers were steadfast in their support of pacifism, and in their aid to fellow members of their denomination as well as others, and were firm in their belief that God was responsible for the setting up of governments. The political tides, however, had changed as well in the 1770s, and the question of loyalty became a different concept. The Revolution triggered a metamorphosis; where once all were British citizens, now, with the emergence of the fledgling nation, all became American citizens. Quakers could no longer be considered British citizens. Their identification with the British government after the splintering of the empire became a nonstarter. They were forced to align politically with America or maintain their religious alliances in Britain. They chose the latter, and once this choice was evident, Quakers were determined to favor a foreign alliance rather than attaching themselves to the nationalistic zeal to which they were expected to adhere. Thus, Paine's charges, although more propaganda than not, stuck, and future confrontations with the new government became inevitable.