Gentle, humane, pacific, and keenly money-making

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

William Lecky, writing in the 1890s, describes the prevailing spirit of Colonial Pennsylvania — which was largely Quaker:

There was perfect liberty, and the prevailing spirit was gentle, humane, pacific, and keenly money-making. The Quakers, though their distinctive character was very clearly imprinted on the colony, had found that some departure from their original principles was indispensable. A section of them, in flagrant opposition to the original tenet of their sect, contended that war was not criminal when it was strictly defensive. A long line of cannon defended the old Quaker capital against the French and Spanish privateers ; and the Pennsylvanian Assembly, in which the Quakers predominated, repeatedly voted military aids to the Crown during the French wars, disguising their act by voting the money only ‘ for the King’s use,’ and on one occasion ‘ for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or other grain,’ the latter being understood to be gunpowder.

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