Given my considerable Quaker ancestry on my mother's side, I have long been interested in the "friendly" persuasion. Alas, their convictions at times got the better of them, driving others to exasperation by their insistence on commitment to principle, their unswerving devotion to the truth, at all costs. What they sacrificed, at times, were other human virtues such as compromise and simply accomodation. Nevertheless,
William James stated about the Quakers that they are a sect "impossible to over-praise. In a day of shams, it was a religion of veracity rooted in spiritual inwardness, and a return to something more like the original gospel truth." For more.
In fact, from America's earliest origins, the "Friendly" contribuitions of Quaker influence have been enormous. They downplayed theology, doctrine, dogma as being secondary to life itself, the quality of the life we live, our actions -- how we treat our fellow humans here on earth. Ethics was somehow of the highest importance. Jesus said simply to keep your word, let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. So Quakers refused to swear. Voltaire remarked concerning Penn's treaty with the (Delaware) Indians at Shackamaxon, that it was the only treaty never sworn to -- and never broken.
The story of Betsy Ross, who made the first American flag for George Washington, is a story of triumph through adversity. She was disowned by her own meeting of Quakers. She lost one husband to an explosion at a munitions depot that he was guarding. Her second husband died in a British prison. She survived her third husband, who was sick for many years. She had seven daughters, two of whom died in infancy. She eventually joined the Free Quakers, or "Fighting Quakers" because they did not adhere strictly to the historic pacifism of the sect. (For more on Betsy Ross).
Another fighting Quaker was Thomas Mifflin. He was a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, a Continental Congressman from Pennsylvania, fifth President of the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Early in the Revolutionary War, Mifflin left the Continental Congress to serve in the Continental Army. Although his family had been Quakers for four generations, he was expelled for going against the Quaker peace testimony.
Perhaps the most famous of the fighting Quakers, socalled, was Tom Paine, who in Common Sense bitterly excoriated his own heritage of Quakerism for its strict neutrality during the American Revolution, even bringing up King George's beautiful Quaker mistress, castigating her cowardly husband for his cuckoldry. His life story truly bridged a divide. Tom Paine was raised a Quaker in old England, brought to the United States by Ben Franklin, and in short order wrote his incendiary (and intensely hostile to Quakerism) Common Sense. It is said that this little book, more than anything else, led to transforming public sentiment in favor of Independence. John Adams declared that "History is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine." Adams had much that he objected to in Paine’s thinking, but he asserted nonetheless that "Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain." Paine's earlier damnation of Quaker pacifism marks a contrast with eventual praise. In later works, he showed a much more appreciative attitude toward the Friends. At that time, facing the guillotine in Paris, Paine wrote Age of Reason, in which he tempered much of his earlier virulence against the faith of his upbringing. But while finding elements of Quakerism to praise, he turned his animosity now to the rest of historic Christianity for its suppression of science, its bondage to ancient tongues, its persecution of minority faiths, its fanaticism and narrow mindedness, its fear of the common man. At the end of his life, Tom Paine asked for permission to be buried next to his father in the Friends Burying Ground, but was turned down, apparently due to his extremely widespread fame and notoriety. Lincoln said of him, "You know Billy (Herndon), I never tire of reading Tom Paine." (For more on Tom Paine's life and thought.)
See Persistence the heart of science.
Another "fighting Quaker" was Nathaniel Greene, the American commander in the Revolution ranked second only to Washington in importance and accomplishment. His biographer (Cheany) says of him, "If all the generals on both sides of the Revolutionary conflict were piled up and evaluated, Nathanael Greene should probably emerge at the very top for all-around generalship." Although many Quakers abstained from fighting or even taking sides in the Revolution, one who did not was Nathanael Greene from Rhode Island. He broke away from the strict Quaker upbringing he himself had called "of the most supersticious kind," who believed true piety to be incompatible with worldly learning. All his lessons were self-taught, and chief among them must have been how to find out anything he wanted to know. After the death of his father in 1770, Nathanael was seen less and less at Quaker meetings, and three years later he and a cousin were "read out" of the local meeting for attending a place they shouldn't have been. Tradition identifies this as a militia muster, but the official church resolution called it a "place of Publick Resort," which at that time could have meant anything from a tavern to a bawdy house. We may never know, but there is no indication that Nathanael turned his back on the Quakers with any regret; he was already developing an interest in military matters that would have appalled the pacifist Friends. (For a general life of Nathaniel Greene.)
Another "fighting Quaker" was Samuel Nicholas, first Commandant of the USMC, born in Philadelphia. The son of Mary (Shute) and Andrew Nicholas, a prosperous Quaker blacksmith. His adult associations included non-Friends as well as Friends, and he became involved with some of the leaders of the Second Continental Congress, then meeting in Philadelphia. On 5 November 1775, Congress commissioned Nicholas as Captain of Marines, and later, at Tun Tavern, he became the first Commandant of the Marine Corps. Retiring from service after Yorktown, Nicholas was eventually allowed back into the Quaker fold, despite his un-Quakerly service in the military, and when he died in Philadelphia on 27 August 1790, he was buried in the Friends Burying Ground. (For Birth of the Marines: USMC)
The man responsible for the first amendment protection of Religious Freedom was James Madison, a man of scholarly and bookish disposition who wisely married a woman of opposite temperament. Madison's buxom wife Dolley, though raised a Quaker, compensated for her husband’s social stand-offishness with her unquakerly warmth and gaiety. So surprising for someone from a Quaker background, Dolley transformed the White House into a most delightful place to visit. Beautiful gregarious, buoyant, and cheerful, the regular social gatherings she hosted were lively events at which anyone would feel welcome. Through her special inviting manner the often tense political, as well as social, atmosphere of Washington could become wonderfully calm. (For more, Dolley Payne Todd Madison)
Of all our presidents, the two with closest ties to their Quaker roots were Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon. Lincoln was named after his Quaker grandfather, Abraham Lincoln of Exeter PA, youngest son of Mordecai and Mary (Robeson) Lincoln, who married the Quaker Anne Boone, first cousin of Daniel Boone, also a Quaker. Yet all his life the future president appears to have wanted to distance himself from not just his Quaker roots, but in fact Christianity itself. He was embarrassed by his given name Abraham, and normally signed official documents, simply, A. Lincoln. In his young manhood he gained a reputation as a scoffer, though part of this may have been due to his skill at doing impressions of local preachers and evangelical barnstormers. (See Lincoln's autobiographies 1858-1860.)
Ben Franklin was not a Quaker, nor was he raised a Quaker. But thanks to his extensive association with the Quakerly city of Philadelphia, he often was thought to be Quaker. He appears to have almost encouraged the misperception at times. It is certain that Ben Franklin, no less than Lincoln or Tom Paine, was hardly an orthodox Christian adherent. His expressed beliefs make him more a Deist or Unitarian than anything else. But he maintained cordial relations with more orthodox and biblical Christians, extended respect and interest in the doctrinal beliefs of more mainstream believers, and diffused potential conflict as much through humor and wit, than otherwise. (For a discussion of Franklin's many-sided faith or lack thereof.)
Called the "Father of American Surgery," Philip Syng Physick was responsible for many advances in his field, ranging from orthopedic to ophthalmic surgery. Margaret Hope Bacon, author of The Quiet Rebels, notes the surprising number of all kinds of scientists who emerged from the ranks of the Quakers. For example, long before Charles Patten and Luther Burbank, the Quaker James Bartram was trailblazing in the scientific fields of botany and horticulture.
In literature, the great Walt Whitman has been noted for his Quaker-gray clothing, his Quaker friends, and the Quaker values and speech patterns embodied in his poems, though he often declared that he was outside the fence of his father’s Quaker faith. (For more Walt Whitman and the Quakers)
Incidentally, the Bible says in 3 places that Abraham was "the friend of God." In Arabic, Ibrihim was known as al Khalil - the friend (of God). There is something about the word friend, it implies intimacy, companionship, a relationship, an unspoken bond, perhaps. The Christian West made contact with the Arabic tradition largely via old Spain.
