Answering Liberty's Call

The temperature rose above freezing and the snow melted to slush by the time we stopped for the noon meal at a public house in a Quaker settlement. Here, in contrast to the ordinary I visited my first day on the road, the clientele was sober and respectful of the serving maids. The women’s plain dress differed little from what I usually wore at home, so Uncle was right about that, I supposed. I wondered what he would think of my attire if he could see me now.

I was curious to ask questions of the Quaker women but did not feel comfortable speaking to them while in my disguise. Back on the road with Ludwick, I could not be silent. “Before I met my husband, I knew only the Anglican Church. The Baptist doctrine’s liberty of conscience appealed to me. In Maryland the Catholics and the Lutherans do not attack one another. And here, in Pennsylvania, you say you have toleration?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“If there cannot be one Christian denomination on which we all agree, why do we not simply leave everyone to choose, rather than persecute? The Quakers seem content to stand apart.”

“And are you acquainted with any Friends?”

“I am not but I have read some scholarly works published by Quaker women.”

“Toleration does not eliminate discord. Though the Friends extend more opportunities to women, there is much about them you would not like, Anna.”

“I think a person’s actions matter more than their professed doctrine. Though women are the guardians of religious life in the home, religion—and wars—are the dominion of men. The Quakers are pacifists. No woman wants to send a husband, brothers, or sons to war.”

“Ja, but are you familiar with Thomas Paine’s Epistle to the Quakers?”

“Of course. Benjamin brought home a copy of Common Sense the summer before last, and I read it all—including that essay in the appendix. I said no woman wants war. I didn’t say we should never resort to it. And I am wife to a soldier.” 

“In Philadelphia, I have many acquaintances who are Friends. As you and your husband consider yourself patriots, do you not find the Quakers’ refusal to aid the Continental Army a threat to the Revolutionary cause? Quakers send none of their men off to fight, yet they pay substitutes—and they sell goods to whichever army can best pay for them. In this way they are complicit, for their actions prolong the war. Is that fair to your husband, who has volunteered to fight?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. It is difficult to hold religious convictions that differ from the majority. Yet Benjamin has always said religion should not drive a wedge between us and others. He hopes once we achieve independence, we shall also have freedom to worship as we please—in all the states.”

“My friend General Washington believes the nation that proselytizes least governs best. Perhaps we shall soon find out if that is true.”