by which they may properly protect themselves, and while Friends profess faith in Providence to protect them, they are not careful to observe Christ's other precepts, but lay up treasures on earth, and thus draw upon themselves the attacks of enemies. Hitherto Pennsylvania has been an inconsiderable colony, but is now a choice and easy prey to any enemy. War is not unlikely in the near future. The people are clamoring for defence, and he urges upon the meeting that those who for conscience' sake cannot join in the movement should decline to allow themselves to be used as candidates, and publicly announce they will not serve even if chosen.* "It is now several months since I received from my kind friend J. Logan a copy of his printed paper sent to your yearly meeting, at the reading of which I confess I was not a little troubled and surprised, not that I believed it would be of so much weight as to occasion any con. siderable embarrassment among yourselves only as it would be a public declaration of differing sentiments and a basis for your enemies to build a good deal of mischief upon as I observe has since happened. . . . The argument entirely turns on his assertion of all government being founded on force. If this is once cleared and it is demonstrated it is so, yet to prove his argument of any force in this case he must make it plain that there is no difference in the degrees of it but that the force exercised in the correction of a child is the same as in cutting the throat of an enemy."--Dr. Fothergill to Israel Pemberton, Second month 8th, 1742. ... The position taken by James Logan,* while never having official recognition by the Meeting, was undoubtedly held by a considerable number of Friends for the coming forty years. They constituted the sort that made up Franklin's fire company; † that armed themselves against the "Paxton Boys" in 1764, that supported John Dickinson, Charles Thomson and their friends in urging the resistance which led to the Revolutionary war, and that finally separated and formed the Free Quakers. Many of those who did not separate acknowledged the Nevertheless Logan was able to give the Quaker argu ment quite forcibly. "I always used the best argument I could, and when I pleaded that we were a peaceable people, had wholly renounced war and the spirit of it, that were willing to commit ourselves to the protection of God alone in an assurance that the sword could neither be drawn or sheathed but by his direction, that the desolations made by it are the declarations of his wrath alone; that the Christian dispensation is exclusively one of peace on earth and good will to men; that those who will not use the sword, but by an entire resignation commit themselves to his all-powerful Providence shall never need it, but be safe under a more sure defence than any worldly arm,-when I pleaded this I really spoke my sentiments, but this will not answer in English Government."-2nd September, 1703. Franklin doubtless grossly exaggerates the number of such Friends. See Sparks's "Life of Franklin," Vol. I., page 151. errors. validity of the Quaker testimony, and their own The most of them were young men, drawn away by the warlike excitements of the times and the seductive influences of Franklin and his associates. Those who had the most right to speak for the Meeting, with the great majority of the membership, stood unflinchingly by the views of Fox and Penn, not only through the French and Indian wars but in the more trying days of the Revolution. The Yearly Meeting never gave any uncertain sound. Logan was out of sympathy with Friends not only on the question of war, but he also supported lotteries, which the Meeting condemned. In a remarkable letter introducing Franklin to Thomas Penn, written in 1749, he tells of his friend's abilities and judgment, "crowned with the utmost modesty." Among his good deeds he speaks of the establishment of the Philadelphia library, the raising of militia companies in 1747, notwithstanding that "one Sauer, a Dutch printer in Germantown, who publishes a weekly paper in his own language, is so much of a Quaker that he writes against bearing arms on any account," and of setting up two lotteries, from the proceeds of which a battery was erected. Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting addressed THE OLD COURT-HOUSE AND FRIENDS' MEETING. |