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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Then the question is when the movement took hold in the US (probably early on, I suspect) and what sort of Quaker 'activism' there may have been with respect to the Civil War. I'm not sure that you would describe the movement as "catching on in the U.S." since the state of Pennsylvania was founded by (and named after) the Quaker William Penn. So in that respect the nation was born with a very large Quaker constituency. Quakers were and are opposed to violence and the term "Quaker guns" no doubt was used as a bit of irony. You are correct that their opposition to slavery put the Quakers into a delimma when it came to taking up arms against slavery. Many of them were conscientious objectors. President Lincoln wrote a Quaker in 1863 "Your people—the Friends—have had and are having a very great trial. On principle, and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma some have chosen one horn and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this, I doubt not; and, believing it, I shall still receive, for our country and myself, your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven.see http://www2.gol.com/users/quakers/abraham_lincoln.htm
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 72
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 72 |
Thanks for the info, Alex. Very interesting. Sweet Quakers.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Welcome back, Rock Island.
how they reconciled these positions
One shouldn't have to kill people to convince them they're wrong.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
>One shouldn't have to kill people to convince them they're wrong.
On the other hand the recidivism rate drops immediately to zero.
TEd
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Quakers got a bad name not so long ago: Richard Nixon was one.
Funnily enough, I first heard of Quaker guns when Sandra and I were doing a tour of several Civil War battlefields in 2001.
They used Quaker guns at Sharpsburg/Antietam. The Japanese-American ranger there showed us where the Confederates positioned them to deter a flank attack. They were, apparently, made on the spot and were really crude. It's not in any of the official histories and he got the information from some source he was holding close to his chest! He was doing his PhD on the battle.
Sharpsburg is the spookiest of the Civil War battlefields that we went to. It was, hands down, the bloodiest single day's action in the war.
It's one of the easiest on which to visualise the action. It may have been because we had such a good guide, but.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
How many fell at Sharpsburg as compared with the number who fell at Pickett's charge? I don't have either of these figures at hand at the moment. Just curious, really.
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