MORALS OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.
From the first the members found themselves subjected to a clear, simple
standard of morals. Its dominion was unbroken for one hundred years, and
came to an end with the Division of the Meeting; though that event was a
result as much as a cause of its termination. For one hundred years a
local ethical code prevailed. While they lived apart the Quakers in
their community life rejoiced in the unbroken sway of a communal code of
morals, the obedience to which made for survival and economic success.
When, with better roads to Poughkeepsie and to Fredericksburgh,
newcomers began to invade the community; when in 1849 the railroad came
to the neighborhood, immersing the Quakers in the world economy, the
Quaker code was insufficient, retarded rather than assisted survival,
and rather forbade than encouraged success. It therefore lost its force.
Only in a few individuals has it survived.
The residents of the Hill, from their earliest settlement in 1728 to the
time of the Division in 1828, knew no other government than that of the
Meeting. They accepted no other authority, hoped for public good through
no other agency, even read no other literature, than that of the Quaker
Monthly Meeting of the Oblong. The religious Meeting House was also the
City Hall, State House, and Legislature for the patriotism, as it was
the focus of the worship and doctrinal activity of this population. This
cannot be stated too strongly, for there was no limit to its effect. It
explains many things otherwise diverse and unexplained.
During all the periods of war the Quakers showed their separateness by
refusing to pay taxes, lest they contribute to the support of armies. In
the Revolution, the Meeting exercised unflinching discipline, for the
purpose of keeping members out of the patriot armies, and punished with
equal vigor those who paid for the privilege of exemption from military
duty and those who enlisted in the ranks. In every act of the discipline
of the Quaker Community appears the purpose of the Meeting, namely, to
keep its members to itself and away from all other moral and spiritual
control. This will appear in definite illustrations below.
The standard of morals which the Meeting thus upheld with jealous care
was a simple one, and logically derived from the distinctive doctrine of
the Society of Friends. That the Spirit of God dwells in every man was
their belief,[11] and from 1650, when Fox was called "a Quaker" before
Justice Bennett at Derby, England, to the Division in 1830, they applied
this doctrine in practical, rather than in metaphysical ways. They were
a moral, rather than a theological people. It will appear in this
chapter that only when the moral grip of the Meeting was broken in a
division did doctrinal questions come to discussion on the Hill.
The moral bearing of the one cardinal doctrine of Quakerism is well
expressed in the following quotation from a Friend qualified to speak
with authority:
"The Friends have been consistent in all their peculiarities with one
central principle, the presence and inspiration of the Divine Spirit in
the human soul. This has been the reason for their opposition to
slavery. They felt, You cannot hold in slavery GOD! And God is in this
black man's life, therefore you cannot enslave God in him. So you must
not inflict capital punishment upon this man in whom is God.
"The same argument dignified woman, who was made the equal of man. The
same argument applies to the impossibility of war. You cannot think of
God fighting against God. The Quaker had no sentimental idea of
suffering; but he believed that you cannot take life, in which is God.
"The same argument applied to weights and measures; the Quakers early
demanded that they be officially sealed. So they believed in only one
standard of truth, rather than one for conversation and one for a court
of justice. No oaths were necessary for those who spoke for God all the
time."[12]
In this belief one sees the principle on which were selected the reforms
in which the Quaker Preacher was interested. "He appears to have had ...
his mind strongly influenced to an active protest against the evils of
slavery, war, capital punishment and intemperance."[13] Each of these
reforms was inspired by reverence for human life, which was thought to
be desecrated or abused.
This simple code expressed itself in abstinence from practices believed
to defile the body. Members of the Meeting early adopted a strict rule
against the use of intoxicating liquors. It is said of the ancestors of
Richard Osborn that: "Of these six generations not a man has ever been
known to use spirituous liquors, or tobacco, to indulge in profanity, or
to be guilty of a dishonest action."[14]
A sense of personal degradation underlay their opposition to poverty
among members. There is record of an order of the Meeting, in 1775, for
the purchase of a cow "to loan to Joseph ----." The practice thus early
observed has since then been unbroken. The member of the community who
comes to want is at this day taken care of by popular subscription.
Through the early century the Meeting accomplished this end, sometimes
by formal, sometimes by informal methods. In the later years of the
nineteenth century it was accomplished by special funds to which
everybody gave. Thus simply was poverty forestalled. The family assisted
soon came to self-support again. No debt was incurred, and no obligation
remained to be discharged; but every member of the Meeting and of the
community felt obliged to give and was glad to give to this anti-poverty
fund. The basis of it seems to have been respect for human embodiments
of the Divine Spirit.
This ideal of personality, divinely indwelt, created a sense of personal
duty, even in opposition to all men. In the years of anti-slavery
agitation David Irish and his sister "made their protest against slavery
by abstaining as far as possible from slave-made products; and together
they made maple, to take the place of cane sugar, and used nothing but
linen and woolen clothing (largely homespun)."[15] This later Quaker,
possessed of the spirit of the community of his fathers, shows his inner
conflict with the ideals of a competitive age in the expression "so far
as possible." It was not as practicable in 1855 to "abstain from
slave-made products," as it would have been in the year 1755.
The hospitality of the neighborhood expressed this simple code. It was
the custom to entertain the traveler in any house to which he might
come. It would have been wrong to exclude him; he was welcomed with a
dignified and formal respect by these old Friends, because entertainment
of guests in those days was a vital reality, as well as a religious
practice. These settlers in the wild forests believed that in every
wayfarer was a divine voice, a possible message from heaven. They also
treated every traveler as a possible object of their "preachments," and
spared not to "testify" to him of their peculiar beliefs and "leadings."
It was the Friends' method of propagating their gospel to send men and
women on journeys, without pay, to distant states and provinces. This
religious touring was not peculiar to them, but it was made by them an
official agency of great power in evangelizing the Colonies.
As an itinerant Friend, Woolman, the anti-slavery apostle, came to the
Hill in 176-. So Paul Osborn joined himself to a party of Friends
"travelling on truth's account," and with them visited the Carolinas, in
the years before the Revolution. The same pioneer left in his will
directions for the entertainment of such travellers upon his estate
forever.[16]
This religious itinerating was a part of the economic life of those days
as well; for the Friends never separated the one from the other.
Wherever they went they "testified," and to every place they came with
shrewd appreciation of its value as a place of settlement. Says James
Wood: "Each Quaker home as it was settled became a resting-place for
those who followed, for it was a cardinal principle of Quaker
hospitality to keep open house for all fellow-members, under all
circumstances."[17]
The development of the hospitality that was a part of the religion of
the Quakers would be itself a sufficient study. It has furnished some of
the most interesting chapters of the history of the Hill. It is now
completely transformed, through the pressure of competitive economic
life; and, with undiminished activities, has become a means of revenue
in "the keeping of boarders." Seven of the old Quaker homes, in the
period of the Mixed Community, took on the aspect of small hotels. For
this business the Quakers have a preparation in their history and
traditions. They have an inbred genius for hospitality. They have also a
thrift and capacity for "management" which have made their efforts
successful. One is impressed in their houses by a union of abundance
with economy, impossible to imitate.
Like other American pioneer neighborhoods, of a religious type, the
Quaker community at Oblong had a history in the matter of sexual
morality. The relations of the sexes offered to the Friends a field in
which their favorite doctrine of the indwelling divine spirit produced
moral harvests. The records of Oblong Meeting are filled with cases of
moral discipline. There is scarcely a meeting in whose minutes some case
is not mentioned, either its initial, intermediate or final stages. No
family was exempt from this experience. The best families furnished the
culprits as often as they supplied the committees to investigate and to
condemn.
The regular method of procedure in marriage will best exhibit the moral
standards of the time. When a couple would marry, they indicated to the
Meeting their intention; and a committee was at once appointed to
investigate their "clearness." That is, these two must be free of other
engagements, and must be free of debt or other incumbrance of such sort
as would render marriage impossible or unadvisable. At the next monthly
meeting the report of the committee advanced the case one stage; and if
they were found "clear of all others," another committee was appointed
"to see that the marriage was orderly performed."
The parties on the day set appeared before the Meeting,[18] and in its
regular course, stood up and said the words of mutual agreement which
made them man and wife. A certificate was used, and to it the guests
signed their names. But no minister had official part in the ceremony.
It was their belief, to which they adhered with logical strictness, that
the divine spirit in each of the parties to a marriage made it sacred,
and that in marrying they spoke the will of the Spirit.
Entire continence was expected of every unmarried person, and the
strictest marital faithfulness of man and wife, because of the
sacredness of personal life. But in a pioneer society, through those
rough early decades, when for long times war was disturbing the serenity
of social life, the conduct of men and women, not mindful of propriety,
was determined by the strong, masterful passions of an out of door
people. Besides, the government of the Meeting was contrary to the
general opinion of the countryside, and the Meeting House members were
immersed in a population whose standards were looser, as well as
sanctioned by authorities not recognized by the Meeting. The result was
that in the first century of the Hill, 1728-1828, there were many
instances of sexual immorality, many accusations of married persons
untrue to their vows, and a resulting attention of the whole community
to this theme which we do not know to-day. Frankness of discussion of
these matters prevailed. The punishments inflicted, the public
confessions demanded, the condemnation of specific and detailed offences
read from the steps of the Meeting Houses, were all as far from present
day approval as the offences themselves from modern experience. The
writer is sure that, comparing the records of the Quaker Community with
his own knowledge of the annals of the Mixed Community, there were more
offences of this kind considered by the Monthly Meeting of Oblong in any
one year, 1728-1828, than were publicly known in a population of the
same extent in the ten years 1890-1900. The commonest of these offences
were simple cases of illicit relations between unmarried persons, or
between persons, one of whom was married; the offence often being
associated in the minds of the accusers with "going to frollicks." In
these, as in all cases, the Meeting received the complaint and appointed
a committee to investigate and to labor with the accused. On receiving
its report, if guilt was evidenced, the Meeting pressed the matter,
often increasing the size of the committee. It always demanded an
expression of repentance, and the restoration of right conduct, without
which no satisfaction was to be had. If the accused persons, being found
guilty, did not repent, they were in the end "disowned." The disownment
by the Meeting was a serious penalty. It diminished a man's business
opportunities, it shut the door of social life to him, and it
effectually forbade his marriage within the Meeting.
Its power is shown in a number of cases recorded in the minutes, in
which the ban of the Meeting had been laid upon some one, who was
compelled later to come to the Meeting, make a tardy acknowledgement,
and be restored, before he could proceed freely in some of the communal
activities controlled by the Meeting. Often the committee appointed by
the Meeting reported that they were not satisfied with the repentance
offered, seeing in it evidently more of policy than penitence. Usually
they received, in later visitations of the accused, sufficient tokens
of submission, and the Meeting was satisfied; but not always.
The most curious instance of the working out of this control exercised
by the Meeting, especially over the sexual relations, is in the marriage
of Joseph ---- with Elizabeth ----. The first act in the little drama
was the formal written statement of Joseph that he was sorry for "having
been familiar with his wife before his marriage to her." The Monthly
Meeting appointed a committee, as usual, after making record of this
"acknowledgment." After a month the committee reported that they had
visited Joseph, and found his repentance sincere; and another committee
was appointed to draw up a testimony against his former misconduct, to
which Joseph was required to subscribe; and in a later month to hear it
read from the steps of the Preparative Meeting in the neighborhood where
he lived--or perhaps in that in which the offence was best known. After
this had all been done, with patient detail, and reported and recorded,
a further month elapsed, and then announcement was made at the Meeting
of the intention of Joseph and Elizabeth to marry. The reader is
astonished, thinking that Joseph has already evidenced his loyalty to
his wife. A closer re-reading of the stages of the incident shows that
the wife mentioned in the original offence was now dead; but that the
offence was not dead. Joseph had to be restored to the Meeting before he
could marry Elizabeth, who was very evidently a devoted member. To win
his new wife, he had to make acknowledgment of the offence which
preceded his former marriage.
This incident illustrates the whole attitude of that community toward
these moralities. They were thought to be defilements of the body, the
temple of God. No change of outward condition could eliminate the
offence, which must be wiped out by repentance, public acknowledgment
and formal restoration.
It is evident from the foregoing that the Meeting maintained control
over the community, at least of its own members, by possessing an
effective power to approve or to disapprove of the economic and the
marital condition of each individual.
The code of morals practiced in this community required strict business
honesty. The Quaker has moral discretion in economic affairs. He
"expects to get what he pays for, and he expects to give what he has
agreed." The honesty of "stroke-measure," by which bushels are topped
off, the faithful performance of contracts and payment of debts were
inculcated by the Meeting and enforced by its discipline.
This chapter may fitly close with a statement of the anathema of
Quakerism, pronounced many times in a year, during the century. The
offence selected shall be a moral one:
"Whereas, Jonathan Osgood hath had a right of membership among us, the
people called Quakers, but not taking heed to the dictates of truth,
hath so far deviated from the good order established among Friends as to
neglect attendance of our religious meetings for worship and discipline,
to deviate from the plain scripture language, and to refuse to settle
with his creditors, and pay his just debts; and hath shut himself up
concealed from the civil authorities, therefore for the clearing of
truth and our Religious Society we do testify against his misconduct,
and disown him, the said Jonathan Osgood, from being any longer a member
of our Society, until he shall from a true sight and sense of his
misconduct condemn the same to the satisfaction of the Meeting. Which
that he may is our desire for him. Signed, in and on behalf of Purchase
Monthly Meeting this th day of the th month."
The above wording except the name is taken from the minutes of Purchase
Meeting; and some of the offences mentioned in a few pages of those
minutes, for which men were disowned, or for acknowledgment pardoned
and restored, are the following: "deviating from plainness of speech and
apparel"--"not keeping to the plain scripture language;" "going to
Frollicks," "going to places of amusement," "attending a horserace;"
"frequenting a tavern, being frequently intoxicated with strong liquor;"
"placing his son out apprentice with one not of our Society;" "leaving
his habitation in a manner disagreeable to his friends;" "to use profane
language and carry a pistol, in an unbecoming manner;" "bearing arms;"
"to challenge a person to fight;" "to marry with a first cousin;" "to
keep company with a young woman not of our Society on account of
marriage;" "to be married by a magistrate;" "to marry with one not of
our Society before a hireling priest;" "to join principles and practice
with another society of people;" "to be guilty of fornication;" "to be
unchaste with her who is now my wife" (the person afterward married by
the accused). Oblong minutes: "to have bought a negro slave," "to have
bought a negro wench and to be familiar with her."
It was the operation of this code of morals, and of its ecclesiastical
checks and curbs, that made the Quaker Hill man and the Quaker Hill
sentiment what they are. And having done its work this code at the last
tended to weaken the Meeting, as it had strengthened the public
conscience. In talking recently with a sweet old lady past eighty, I
asked her, "Did you ever hear anyone disowned in meeting?" "No," she
never had, and "doubted if there had been many." Later, her daughter
said, "Why, Grandmother, you married out of meeting yourself!" Whereupon
I asked again, "Well, what did they do with you then?" "Oh," she
replied, not at all embarrassed, "they turned me out!"
"But what was the outcome of it all?" asks James Wood, in the closing
sentences of his monograph, "The Purchase Meeting." He continues: "As a
church the Quakers here missed their great opportunity. As settlers
came among them in increasing numbers, the Friends became solicitous to
preserve the strictest moral observance among their members. They
withdrew from contact and association with the world about them and
confined their religious influence and effort to themselves. The
strictest watch was maintained over the deportment of old and young.
Members were dismissed for comparatively slight offences. Immigration
further reduced their numbers. Hypercriticism produced disagreements
among themselves. Finally, doctrinal differences arose which resulted in
a disastrous separation into two bodies in 1828."
[11] Francis B. Gummere of Haverford college says of George
Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends: "The central point of his
doctrine is the direct responsibility of each soul to God, without
mediation of priest or form, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit
in the heart of every human being." Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia,
1894.
The following is authoritative for the Society: "We believe in no
principle of life, light or holiness, but the influence of the Holy
Spirit of God, bestowed on mankind, in various measures and degrees,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the capacity to receive this
blessed influence, which, in an especial manner, gives man pre-eminence
above the beasts that perish; which distinguishes him, in every nation
and in every clime, as an object of the redeeming love of God; as a
being not only intelligent but responsible;..."--"A Declaration of Some
of the Fundamental Doctrines of Christian Truth, as held by the
Religious Society of Friends."
[12] Mr. James Wood, in an address at Quaker Hill Conference,
1907.
[13] "David Irish, A Memoir," by Mrs. Phoebe T. Wanzer.
[14] "Richard Osborn, a Reminiscence," by Margaret B. Monahan.
[15] "David Irish, A Memoir," by Mrs. Phoebe T. Wanzer.
[16] To "friends travelling on truth's account" the doors of
the old house always swung wide. Paul Osborn kept open house for "his
friends, the people called Quakers," during his lifetime, and his will
provides in the most minute and careful manner for his wife "the better
to qualifye her to keep a house of entertainment for friends." ... The
"littel meadow in lot 29" he gave to Isaac Osborn, that "he shall keep
well all horses of friends my wife shall send him;" and should Isaac
"neglect the injunctions herein enjoined," and cease to keep such house
of entertainment for friends then his right to certain legacies "shall
descend and revolve to them, him or her that shall truly fulfill them."
All his lands in the latter case Paul gives to the "Yearly Meeting for
Friends, the people called Quakers, of Philadelphia."--"Richard Osborn,
a Reminiscence," by Margaret B. Monahan.
[17] "The Bi-Centennial of the New York Yearly Meeting, An
Historical Sketch," by James Wood, 1895.
[18] "It was Wednesday, the day of the regular mid-week
meeting, and the house was crowded. The young people took their places
upon the facing seats, and the meeting began. Daniel Haviland was
minister and he spoke at length. Then, after a short pause, Richard
Osborn and Roby Hoag arose, and clasping hands, spoke alternately the
solemn sentences of the Friends' marriage ceremony, which have united
them for sixty years. Then was brought forth the marriage certificate,
fairly engrossed in the bridegroom's own hand, and many names of those
present were affixed, after which it was read aloud. This being done,
and kindly greetings offered, Richard and Roby Osborn drove back to
their home. The wedding was well furnished with guests, and four fat
turkeys graced the board that day."--"Richard Osborn, a Reminiscence,"
by Margaret B. Monahan. Quaker Hill Series.