A Quaker is, essentially
an Englishman, in whatever part of the earth he is born or lives. The
outrages of Great Britain on our navigation and commerce have kept us in
perpetual bickerings with her. The Quakers here have taken side against
their own government; not on their profession of peace, for they saw
that peace was our object also; but from devotion to the views of the
mother society. In 1797 and 8, when an administration sought war with
France, the Quakers were the most clamorous for war. Their principle of
peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the primary one of adherence to
the Friends in England, and what was patriotism in the original became
treason in the copy. On that occasion, they obliged their good old
leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from a petition to Congress,
against war, which had been delivered to a Representative of
Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present administration. He
accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his name. You must
not, therefore, expect that your book will have any more effect on the
society of Friends here, than on the English merchants settled among
us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally. I know
individuals among them as good patriots as we have.
I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed
in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of health
and happiness.
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