Tax resistance in the “Peace Churches” → Quakers → 18th century Quakers → Nicholas Waln

A printed sheet, origin unknown to me but dated “” reads: “ a deputation of the religious society called Quakers, attended the house of Representatives of the United States with the following address and memorial asserting the rights of conscience and the reasons of their restraint from complying with military requisitions.”

This can also be found in the book American Quaker War Tax Resistance.

To the President, Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States, in

Congress Assembled

The Address and Memorial of the People called Quakers, convened at their Yearly-Meeting for Pennsylvania, New-Jersey, Delaware, and the Eastern Parts of Maryland and Virginia, held in Philadelphia, by adjournments, from .

Through the continued favour of Divine Providence, being once more permitted to assemble for the purpose of preserving circumspection of life, and decent order throughout our religious society, and as far as infinite wisdom may be pleased to qualify us to promote an increase of gospel righteousness and peace in the earth. In the course of our weighty deliberations we have been informed, that a bill is published by direction of the house of representatives, that the public sentiment may be obtained on the subject, entitled, “A bill more effectually to provide for the national defence, by establishing a uniform militia throughout the United States;” in which, although we perceive that some parts thereof appear intended for the relief of such who are conscientiously scrupulous of taking any part in war, yet we apprehend it our duty to remark, that if enacted into a law, will materially affect us, and our fellow members in general, in the free exercise of conscience, as in section the sixteenth, where it enacts, that every person of the age of eighteen years, and under fifty years, who are exempted from personal service in the militia, by the second section of the said act (except all ministers of religion actually having charge of a church or congregation, all principals, professors, and other teachers of, together with the students in, universities, colleges, and academies, all schoolmasters actually having the charge of a school, and all mariners employed in the sea service of any citizen or merchant within the United States as aforesaid) shall pay an annual tax of two dollars into the public treasury of the United States, to be applied towards the support of the civil government thereof, &c.

Although we cannot but gratefully acknowledge our obligation to the divine author and source of every mercy and blessing, that he hath so illuminated the understandings of men, and disposed the minds of the rulers of this land, as to allow that degree of freedom in matters of conscience which is already enjoyed, yet duty to Almighty God, revealed in the consciences of men, and confirmed by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is an invariable rule which should govern their judgments and actions, he being the only Lord and sovereign of conscience, as by him all men are finally to be judged.

By conscience we mean, that apprehension and persuasion a man has of his duty to God, and the liberty of conscience we plead for, is a free and open profession, and unmolested exercise of that duty; “Such a conscience as keeps within the bounds of morality in all the affairs of human life, and requires us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world,” on which depend the peace, safety, and happiness of religious and civil society; and it must be allowed on serious reflection, that every deviation from such religious duty, essentially disqualifies for that adoration and worship, which is incumbent on all men to perform, to the Supreme Being from whose bounty all our blessings are derived, and every restraint imposed or attempted by human laws on the free exercise thereof, is not only an infringement on the just rights of men, but also an invasion of the prerogative of Almighty God.

Under these considerations we apprehend, that we may reasonably solicit an exemption from being subjected to sufferings on account of our conscientious scruples; but at the same time, we may assure you that many of us are more solicitous to promote the prevalence of the dominion and government of the Prince of Peace, than to escape the sufferings we may undergo by the operation of such a law, firmly believing that all revenge, animosity, strife, and contention are utterly forbidden by Christ our Lord, as appears by his own declaration, Mat. v. 38. viz. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you that ye resist not evil,” &c. And Mat. v. 43, 44, 45. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust.”

Convinced of the necessity of a strict adherence to these, and numerous other divine precepts to the same effect, as well as to the peaceful spirit of the gospel; our religious society have not only uniformly declined joining personally in war, but have also considered themselves conscientiously bound to refuse the payment of any sum required in lieu of such personal service, or in consideration of an exemption from military employment, however laudable the purposes are, to which the money is intended to be applied, as it manifestly infringes on the rights of conscience.

With fervent desires that you may be favoured to discern the true interests of the people, and be qualified to judge with a righteous precision, in what relates to the important concerns of conscience, that the advancement of the glorious gospel day, prophetically declared, may not be retarded, when mankind shall no longer view each other with an indignant eye of malevolence, but cordially embrace as brethren, and nation shall not life up sword against nation neither learn war any more.

We are, respectfully,
Your sincere friends.

Signed in and on behalf of the said Yearly-meeting, by
Nicholas Waln,
Clerk to the meeting this year

On , Nicholas Waln, clerk of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, published the following interpretation of a state tax statute:

This excerpt can also be found in the book American Quaker War Tax Resistance.

In the Act of Assembly which grants the four million of dollars, Cap. 105, is the following clause.

§7. If any person shall willfully conceal in the Return which he makes to the Township or Ward Assessor any part of his taxable Property within such Township or Ward with Intent to screen the same from Taxation, the person so concealing shall pay four fold Taxes for all such Property so concealed, etc.

Under this Act the following case has arisen:

A number of persons, who apprehend they are called upon to bear a testimony against wars and fighting, not though obstinacy, fraud, or deceit, but from a real scruple of conscience, decline giving an account of their estates, as they cannot actively pay a tax to carry on war, though they do not use any device to screen their property from taxation, but expect passively to pay their proportion.

Question: Are such persons within the meaning of the said Section and liable to the heavy penalty of a four fold tax upon all their estate?

Answer: Penal laws which affect particular persons are to be strictly construed and not extended beyond what the clear words will bear; it would be very unsafe to trust those who are to execute laws with power to create offences by strained implications, otherwise they might become as gins and snares to entrap innocent people and be prostituted to purposes very different from what the legislature intended. The Assembly have been very plain in describing the fraud or offence which they mean to have punished, and I apprehend not one of the characters which go to make up the offence is to be found in the case stated. I know not by what train of reasoning it can be made out, that a person who conscientiously declines making any return at all for the reasons stated and who expects passively to pay his full tax, is one “who in the return he makes willfully conceals a part of his taxable property, etc., with intent to screen the same from taxation.” The two cases are as distinct in nature and description as light and darkness; the Act of Assembly has reference to something done with a covinous or fraudulent intention, the case stated has not the least mixture of fraud or criminal intention, in the one is a design to screen his property from taxation, in the other no such view. In short, to constitute the offence mentioned in the Act three things are necessary: 1st, there must be a return made. 2dly, a willful concealing a part, 3dly, with intention to screen the same from taxation.

But it may be objected that giving no account must be a greater offence than giving a partial account. To this I oppose (upon the case stated), a well-known law maxim, that the Act does not make a man guilty unless the mind be guilty, and where a person of sober life and good morals does declare he acts from a mere motive of conscience in matters of this kind, charity, which is the perfection of Christianity, forbids to deny him credit and would induce to proceed in the most lenient manner. And besides as the Act of Assembly makes no provision in the case stated, it is casus omissus and it is as I apprehend out of the power of the commissioners and assessors to impose the penalty; neither would such a clause to accumulate suffering upon conscientious men have been just, confounding the innocent and guilty together. I therefore conclude that the Assembly intended to leave matters of this sort to the reasonable discretion of the commissioners and assessors, who may fall upon easy means of doing what will obtain a proper proportion of tax from such persons without any public disadvantage and more consistent with equity, which is all that ought to be desired. For the above and other reasons I am clear in opinion that the penalty referred to in the question can not by the said Act or by any law that I know of existing in Pennsylvania, be imposed upon the persons stated in the case.

Nicholas Waln portrait in profile

Nicholas Waln

On , Nicholas Waln, clerk of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, sent the following petition to the state legislature on behalf of the meeting:

The government of the consciences of men is the prerogative of the almighty God who will not give his glory to another. Every encroachment upon this his prerogative is offensive to his spirit, and he will not hold them guiltless who invade it but will sooner or later manifest his displeasure to all who persist therein.

These truths we doubt not will obtain the assent of every considerate mind.

The immediate occasion of our now applying to you is, we have received accounts from different places that a number of our friends have been and are 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 declarations or entering into any engagements as parties in the present unsettled state of affairs.

We fervently desire you may consider the generous and liberal foundation of the charter and laws agreed upon in England between our first worthy Proprietary William Penn and our ancestors whereby they apprehended religious and civil liberty would be secured inviolate to themselves and their posterity, so that Pennsylvania hath since been considered an asylum for men of tender consciences and many of the most useful people have resorted hither in expectation of enjoying freedom from the persecution they suffered in their native countries.

We believe every attempt to abridge us of that liberty will be a departure from the true spirit of government which ought to influence all well regulated legislatures and also destructive of the real interest and good of the community and therefore desire the laws which have a tendency to oppress tender consciences may be repealed so that those who live peaceably may not be further disturbed or molested but permitted to enjoy the rights and immunities which their forefathers purchased through much suffering and difficulty and to continue in the careful observation of the great duty of the religious instruction and education of the youth from which by one part of the said laws they are liable to be restrained.

We hope, on due consideration of what we now offer, you will provide for the discharge of such who are in bonds for the testimony of a good conscience which may prevent others hereafter from suffering in like manner.

Signed in and by the desire of our said Meeting held at Philadelphia .
by Nicholas Waln, Clerk.

Petitions like this didn’t always have the hoped-for effect, and sometimes tended to inflame resentment against the Quakers. In , John Pemberton sent a similar letter to the Pennsylvania Assembly in response to a proposed militia act, explaining Quaker pacifism and the history of tolerance of conscientious principles in Pennsylvania, and noting:

These excerpts can also be found in the book American Quaker War Tax Resistance.

It is well known, that for above one hundred years past, we, as a religious society, have declared to the world that we could not, for conscience sake, bear arms, nor be concerned in warlike preparations, either by personal service or by paying any fines, penalties, or assessments imposed in consideration of our exemption from such services.

This infuriated some of the people who had decided to stake their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in the cause of American independence. George Clymer, on behalf of “the Committee of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia,” wrote:

[Y]our Petitioners have seen the copy of an address to your honourable House, entitled “An Address of the people called Quakers,” which, in the opinion of your Petitioners, bears an aspect unfriendly to the liberties of America, and maintains principles destructive of all society and government… These gentlemen want to withdraw their persons and their fortunes from the service of their country, at a time when their country stands most in need of them.

If the patrons and friends of liberty succeed in the present glorious struggle, they and their posterity will enjoy all the advantages derived from it, equally with those who procured them, without contributing a single penny, and with safety to their persons. If the Friends of liberty fail, they will risk no forfeitures, but be entitled, by their behaviour, to protection and countenance from the British Ministry, and will probably be promoted to office. This they seem to desire and expect.

And a group of “Officers of the Military Association of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia” wrote:

We beg leave to remind the honorable House of the constant usage of the province, and that, in all the wars we have been engaged in, no exemption from fines and taxation has been made in favour of any set of people; but, on the contrary, laws and ordinances have repeatedly been made for the purposes of defense, laying general imposts on the inhabitants of the province, of all sects and societies.

We are, however, of opinion that speculative disputes should not now be gone into. The enemy are desolating our country, and danger daily awaits us. Our situation, therefore, furnishes us with arguments, drawn from the laws of nature and reason, which transcend all local establishments. From these laws, and the general principles of civil society, it is undoubtedly certain that all persons who enjoy the benefits should also bear their proportion of the burdens of the state. We cannot conceive it to be consistent with a reasonable conscience to acquire and engross considerable property, in any country, and not part with some of it to defend the rest. We further think, that those who apply taxes, and not those whom the exigencies of the state and the weight of a majority oblige to pay them, are answerable for the consequences of such application. We conscientiously believe that no member of society should be exempted from paying a reasonable proportion of his property towards the general defence, though, he may be exempted from actually bearing arms; and in such case, by paying a fine for such exemption, he is in a better situation than one who risks his life in the service. And if the wealthy members of the society of Quakers are permitted to withhold their proportion, it will in some degree be an invasion of our liberty of conscience, by denying us the means of so effectually making a warlike opposition against our oppressors, which cannot be done without money.

On , a group of Quakers attended a session of the U.S. House of Representatives, and presented them with the following petition, prepared by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting clerk Nicholas Waln:

To the President, Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress Assembled

The Address and Memorial of the People called Quakers, convened at their Yearly-Meeting for Pennsylvania, New-Jersey, Delaware, and the Eastern Parts of Maryland and Virginia, held in Philadelphia, by adjournments, from , inclusive.

Through the continued favour of Divine Providence, being once more permitted to assemble for the purpose of preserving circumspection of life, and decent order throughout our religious society, and as far as infinite wisdom may be pleased to qualify us to promote an increase of gospel righteousness and peace in the earth. In the course of our weighty deliberations we have been informed, that a bill is published by direction of the house of representatives, that the public sentiment may be obtained on the subject, entitled, “A bill more effectually to provide for the national defence, by establishing a uniform militia throughout the United States;” in which, although we perceive that some parts thereof appear intended for the relief of such who are conscientiously scrupulous of taking any part in war, yet we apprehend it our duty to remark, that if enacted into a law, will materially affect us, and our fellow members in general, in the free exercise of conscience, as in section the sixteenth, where it enacts, that every person of the age of eighteen years, and under fifty years, who are exempted from personal service in the militia, by the second section of the said act (except all ministers of religion actually having charge of a church or congregation, all principals, professors, and other teachers of, together with the students in, universities, colleges, and academies, all schoolmasters actually having the charge of a school, and all mariners employed in the sea service of any citizen or merchant within the United States as aforesaid) shall pay an annual tax of two dollars into the public treasury of the United States, to be applied towards the support of the civil government thereof, &c.

Although we cannot but gratefully acknowledge our obligation to the divine author and source of every mercy and blessing, that he hath so illuminated the understandings of men, and disposed the minds of the rulers of this land, as to allow that degree of freedom in matters of conscience which is already enjoyed, yet duty to Almighty God, revealed in the consciences of men, and confirmed by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is an invariable rule which should govern their judgments and actions, he being the only Lord and sovereign of conscience, as by him all men are finally to be judged.

By conscience we mean, that apprehension and persuasion a man has of his duty to God, and the liberty of conscience we plead for, is a free and open profession, and unmolested exercise of that duty; “Such a conscience as keeps within the bounds of morality in all the affairs of human life, and requires us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world,” on which depend the peace, safety, and happiness of religious and civil society; and it must be allowed on serious reflection, that every deviation from such religious duty, essentially disqualifies for that adoration and worship, which is incumbent on all men to perform, to the Supreme Being from whose bounty all our blessings are derived, and every restraint imposed or attempted by human laws on the free exercise thereof, is not only an infringement on the just rights of men, but also an invasion of the prerogative of Almighty God.

Under these considerations we apprehend, that we may reasonably solicit an exemption from being subjected to sufferings on account of our conscientious scruples; but at the same time, we may assure you that many of us are more solicitous to promote the prevalence of the dominion and government of the Prince of Peace, than to escape the sufferings we may undergo by the operation of such a law, firmly believing that all revenge, animosity, strife, and contention are utterly forbidden by Christ our Lord, as appears by his own declaration, Mat. ⅴ. 38. viz. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you that ye resist not evil,” &c. And Mat. ⅴ. 43, 44, 45. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust.”

Convinced of the necessity of a strict adherence to these, and numerous other divine precepts to the same effect, as well as to the peaceful spirit of the gospel; our religious society have not only uniformly declined joining personally in war, but have also considered themselves conscientiously bound to refuse the payment of any sum required in lieu of such personal service, or in consideration of an exemption from military employment, however laudable the purposes are, to which the money is intended to be applied, as it manifestly infringes on the rights of conscience.

With fervent desires that you may be favoured to discern the true interests of the people, and be qualified to judge with a righteous precision, in what relates to the important concerns of conscience, that the advancement of the glorious gospel day, prophetically declared, may not be retarded, when mankind shall no longer view each other with an indignant eye of malevolence, but cordially embrace as brethren, and nation shall not life up sword against nation neither learn war any more.

We are, respectfully,
Your sincere friends.
Signed in and on behalf of the said Yearly-meeting, by
Nicholas Waln,
Clerk to the meeting this year