Philadelphia Quakers and the American Revolution-Final Blog Post before March 10 release

Pennsylvania and western New Jersey Quakers had endured much for their cause. The men who were exiled to Virginia, for example, suffered deprivation, loneliness, and loss, as did the families they left behind. It was clear that the civil liberties of the exiles had been violated, but in times of extreme duress and fear of the unknown, democratic ideals are all too often tossed to the wind. Quakers paid a high price for their "liberty of conscience," while Pennsylvania's leaders lost sight of what liberty really meant and compromised themselves in the process, allowing no dissension in the ranks and stifling open discussion and differences of opinion. The Quakers stood fast to their testimonies, and with few exceptions, they kept their consciences clear and navigated a horrendous wartime experience. The French observer J.P. Brissot de Warville summed up his feelings about the oft-maligned Quakers and their pursuit of neutrality and peace:

I believe it is wrong to persecute them so ruthlessly

or their pacifist mentality. Had this been the first time

they had refused to fight, had this refusal been dictated

by devotion to the British cause, and it had been a cloak

to cover their true feelings, then they would have been guilty

and the persecution would have been justified. But their

neutrality was dictated by religious beliefs which they had always

professed and have continually practiced. Whatever prejudiced or

misinformed writers may say, the truth . . . is that the majority

of Quakers did not favor one side than the other, and they helped

anyone who needed help, no matter who he was. If a few Quakers

did serve in the English army, a few . . . also served in the American army

and the Society expelled indiscriminately all who bore arms.

In the epic correspondence between Jefferson and Adams toward the end of their lives, Jefferson, in discussing religion with Adams, in a noticeable paradox, wrote: "We should all then, like the quakers, live without an order of priests, moralise for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand, nor therefore believe; for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind to an intelligible proposition."