Clare Hanrahan Records War Tax Resisters at Their National Conference
,
WPVM in Asheville, North Carolina did a
show on the recent
NWTRCC
conference in Birmingham, Alabama.
The show is mostly the result of the hard work of
Clare Hanrahan,
who was at the conference as a participant, but was also recording the
proceedings and interviewing others who were there.
You can listen to the show on-line (click the “Stream” button) — it’s like being there. Listening to the show, I felt like I was back in
Birmingham hearing the stories and voices all over again. If you couldn’t make
it to the conference, this is the next best thing.
I got another CP 504 notice from the
IRS
a couple of days ago. Nothing exciting or interesting, just them letting me
know that I’d neglected to include a check with my
return — pretty much the same package I
described in my
post but with a new
set of numbers attached. For the record, I didn’t pay $3,695 in
, and so I got dinged with an estimated tax
penalty of $168 when I filed my 1040. , they’ve added an additional $62.94 in interest & penalties.
James Bowden and Isaac Zane complain that during the American Revolution,
Quakers got it from both sides — the British and the rebels — due to their
refusal to support the militaries.
From The History of the Society of Friends in America,
Vol. Ⅱ: Pennsylvania and New
Jersey ():
During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British army, the members of our
religious Society, in common with others of the citizens, suffered
considerably by the wanton excesses and plunder of the soldiery. A committee
of Friends had an interview with General Howe on this subject. In the
country, over most parts of which the Americans still held control, the
sufferings of Friends were even more severe. Many were subjected to heavy
fines, imprisonments, and other oppressions, for conscientiously refusing to
join in warlike demonstrations; and it is not a little singular, that in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, — provinces founded under the especial auspices
of members of our Society, — their trials in this respect were greater than
in other parts of the Union. The Meeting for Sufferings of Philadelphia,
having received information of the imprisonment of many on this account, in
several localities, presented an address, in , to the Assembly of Pennsylvania on the subject.
“They respectfully represent, that the government of the consciences of men
is the prerogative of Almighty God, who will not give His glory to another;
that every encroachment on this his prerogative, is offensive in his sight,
and that he will not hold them guiltless who invade it, but will sooner or
later manifest his displeasure to all who persist therein. These truths,”
they say, “will, we doubt not, obtain the assent of every considerate mind.
The immediate occasion of our now applying to you, is [that] we have received
accounts from different places, that a number of our friends are and have
been imprisoned, some for refusing to pay the fines imposed in lieu of
personal services in the present war, and others for refusing to take the
test prescribed by some laws lately made. The ground of our refusal is a
religious scruple in our minds against such compliance, not from obstinacy,
or any other motive than a desire of keeping a conscience void of offence
towards God, which we cannot, without a steady adherence to our peaceable
principles and testimony against wars and fightings, founded on the precepts
and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace; by a conformity
to which we are bound to live a peaceable and quiet life, and restrained
from making any declaration or entering into any engagements as parties in
the present unsettled state of public affairs.” After alluding to the manner
in which civil and religious liberty had been secured to the inhabitants of
Pennsylvania under the charter of its enlightened founder, they express a
desire that “the laws which have a tendency to oppress tender consciences may
be repealed,” and that provision may be made for the release of those who are
in “bonds for the testimony of a good conscience, and which may prevent
others hereafter from suffering in like manner.”
, brought no mitigation of the
sufferings of Friends. Fines and imprisonments for refusing to bear arms,
were rigorously enforced, and not only so, but many were now subjected to
heavy exactions for refusing to become collectors of the taxes imposed for
maintaining the war; an office which the Revolutionists seemed determined to
urge on their more peaceable neighbors. Strong remonstrances on this
grievance were made to those in power; but amidst the excitement and tumults
of war, very little disposition existed to lend an ear to conscientious
pleadings for the Christian principles of peace. The distraints upon Friends
on these various accounts, in five of the Quarterly Meetings, in Pennsylvania
Yearly Meeting, as returned to the Meeting for Sufferings, amounted during
this year to upwards of nine thousand five hundred pounds, three of the
Quarterly Meetings having omitted to make a return; and even this large sum
did not include many cases of spoil, the value of which had not been returned.
…[I]n , a forcible
appeal… was presented to the Assembly of Pennsylvania…
On the subject of conscience they remark, “Duty to Almighty God made known in
the consciences of men, and confirmed by the Holy Scriptures, is an
invariable rule, which should govern their judgment and actions. He is the
only Lord and sovereign of conscience, and to Him we are accountable for our
conduct, as by Him all men are to be finally judged. — By conscience
we mean, the apprehension and persuasion a man has of his duty to God; and
the liberty of conscience we plead for, is a free open profession and
unmolested exercise of that duty — such a conscience as, under the
influence of Divine Grace, keeps within the bounds of morality in all the
affairs of human life, and teaches to live soberly, righteously, and godly
in the world.”
After alluding to the grounds of their objection to war and oaths, to the
sufferings of many of their members on these accounts, and to the
“groundless reports and misrepresentations” respecting Friends,
they conclude thus: — “The matters we have now freely laid
before you are serious and important, which we wish you to consider wisely
as men, and religiously as Christians; manifesting yourselves friends to
true liberty, and enemies to persecution, by repealing the several penal
laws affecting tender consciences, and restoring to us our equitable rights,
that the means of education and instruction of our youth, which we conceive
to be our reasonable and religious duty, may not be obstructed, and that the
oppressed may be relieved. In your consideration whereof we sincerely desire
that you may seek for, and be directed by that supreme “wisdom, which
is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good
fruits.”
In presenting the address, the Committee accompanied it with a selection of
cases of Oppression arising from the laws in question. All the documents
were referred by the Assembly to the Committee of Grievances, who, in
, took the
extraordinary and inquisitorial course of proposing a series of questions to
the Society to be answered in writing. These related chiefly to an
acknowledgment of the American Government — to the validity of its laws — to
the paper money, and concluded with the following singular request: “As you
are specially associated together, though not incorporated in law, and issue
public letters and recommendations, and promulgate opinions not only on
religious, but political subjects, or at least uniting them together, you are
requested to communicate the letters and testimonies which have been
published from time to time for seven years past, and signed by the clerks of
your General or Quarterly Meetings of this city, to be sent to other
meetings, or to persons of your Society.”
The questions proposed had the close and serious consideration of the
Friends appointed on the subject, who did not think proper to submit so far
to this categorical and despotic proceeding, as to return specific answers
to the several questions; but concluded again to invite those in power to a
calm and impartial examination for themselves, of the principles of Friends
set forth in their address, as furnishing a sufficient explanation for their
not uniting in the present contest with Great Britain. The reply commenced
as follows: —
To the Committee of Grievances,
Your paper directed to Isaac Zane and others, propounding diverse questions
to our religious Society, has been considered, and, agreeable to the advice
of an eminent Apostle to his Christian brethren, it becomes us “to be
always ready to give an answer to every man that asks a reason of the hope
that is in us with meekness and fear,” so also we think it necessary,
according to their practice, after the example of their Lord and Master, to
adapt the answer to the nature and tendency of the question proposed.
On reviewing the Memorial presented to the Assembly, and our address to
you, they appear to us to contain matter of such importance, and so clearly
point out the sentiments and practice of our religious Society, in the
various changes and revolutions which have occurred in civil government
since we were distinguished from other Christian professions, that a
weighty, impartial attention to them, and a willingness to remove the cause
of oppression complained of, would, we apprehend, sufficiently enable you
to represent to the House, the justice and expediency of relief, on the
principles of Christian and civil liberty.
Our religious meetings were instituted for the laudable intention of
inculcating in our fellow-members, worship to Almighty God, benevolence to
mankind, and to encourage one another in a steadfast, upright conduct,
according to the pure principles of the Gospel; and have been continued for
those Christian purposes for more than a century past; nor has the original
design of their institution been perverted to the purpose of political
disquisitions, or any thing prejudicial to the public safety: we therefore
conceive the queries you have proposed to us in a religious capacity, are
improper, and a mode of redressing grievances new and unprecedented, and
such an inquisition made on a religious Society, as we have not known nor
heard of in America; nevertheless, we may briefly repeat what has been
already declared on behalf of our religious Society, to revive the
important subject of the Memorial in your view; which we think is still
worthy of a very serious and unbiased consideration.
Our Friends have always considered Government to be a divine ordinance,
instituted for the suppressing vice and immorality, the promotion of
virtue, and protection of the innocent from oppression and tyranny. And
they esteem those legislators and magistrates, who make the fear and honor
of God the rule of their conduct, to be worthy of respect and obedience.
And that it is our duty to live a godly, peaceable, and quiet life. It is
also our firm belief that conscience ought not to be subject to the control
of men, or the injunctions of human laws; and every attempt to restrain or
enforce it, is an invasion of the prerogative of the Supreme Lord and
Lawgiver.
“diverse from conscientious motives have now avoided circulating the currency
which has been emitted for the immediate purpose of carrying on war”
After referring to their reasons for objecting to all war, it proceeds thus:
As our Christian principle leads into a life of sobriety and peace, so it
restrains us from taking an active part in the present contest, or joining
with any measures which tend to create or promote disturbance or commotions
in the government under which we are placed; and many of our brethren, from
a conviction that war is so opposite to the nature and spirit of the Gospel,
apprehend it their duty to refrain in any degree voluntarily contributing to
its support; some of whom, for a considerable number of years past on former
occasions, have not actively complied with the payment of taxes raised for
military services; and diverse from conscientious motives, have now avoided
circulating the currency which has been emitted for the immediate purpose of
carrying on war; although on these accounts, they have been, and still are,
subjected to great inconvenience, losses, and sufferings. It has been the
uniform practice of our religious Society, after the example of other
Christian churches in every age, to issue epistles of counsel and admonition
to their members as occasion required; those and the testimonies you allude
to, contain seasonable exhortations to observe a godly conduct, consistent
with the peaceable principles of our Christian profession; and the papers
and records of some of our meetings were seized and detained in
, and, after undergoing
a scrutiny and examination, nothing seditious or prejudicial to the public
good being found in them, they were returned.
In whatever mistaken or unfavorable light our religious Society may be held,
by those who are unacquainted with us and our principles, or prejudiced
against us, we hope to manifest by our conduct, that we are true friends to
all men, and sincerely desirous to promote and inculcate such a temper of
mind in our fellow-professors in general, as to enable us to forgive them
who evilly entreat us, and pray for them who persecute us. Signed on behalf
of the Committee of the people called Quakers, who waited on the Assembly of
Pennsylvania, with a memorial and address, in .
Isaac Zane
Another story from the same volume concerns John Cowgill, who refused to use
the Continental Currency:
John Cowgill of Duck Creek, for refusing to take the paper currency, was
arrested and taken before a body called a Committee of Inspection; and
having declined to give assurances that he would alter his course, was
advertised in the newspapers, as an enemy to his country, all persons being
warned against having any dealings with him. The effect was, that some
millers refused to grind his corn, whilst the schoolmaster who taught his
children, sent them home. On one occasion as he was going with his family to
a week-day meeting, he was seized by a number of armed men, who told him
that the Committee had sent for him. These men, having fixed a paper on his
back inscribed, “On the circulation of the Continental currency
depends the fate of America,” conveyed him in a cart to a neighboring
town, and in this manner paraded him through it.
