tax, not the lack of representation, that was the grievance. Ironically, they repeatedly used words like enslavement and slavery to criticize taxation while at the same time accepting actual slavery. They were men of property, concerned with the issues of the affluent, including taxes. They wrote a Constitution that was far less progressive and enlightened than the laws adopted by the Pennsylvania colony half a century earlier. But they knew that they and their work were flawed. Jefferson, too, believed in the perfectability of humans, or at least that they would steadily grow wiser, and wrote that the Constitution should be rewritten in every generation to avoid having society “remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
We are indoctrinated by the image of “Patriots” who fought to free Americans, but some were brutal, some were bloodthirsty, and some agreed to fight only because of a lack of alternatives, which is one of the principal ways armies are raised. Most soldiers did not volunteer to fight for liberty. Immediately following the outbreak of war the rebelling colonies each issued their own draft laws, which included fines and sometimes imprisonment for conscientious objectors. But there also were many volunteers including, to John Adams's surprise, entire companies of Quakers.
Like all wars, the American Revolution filled its participants with horror. But its survivors were not allowed to commit such an unpatriotic act as discussing their experiences, and veterans were little cared for. Widows of enlisted men were not given pensions until 1832.
Typical of the postrevolutionary spirit was Charles Thomson, an Irish-born enthusiast of the American cause who was said to know as much about the war as any man alive. A friend of Benjamin Franklin and other key players, he served as secretary to the Continental Congress from 1774 until 1789. All during the Revolution he took detailed notes with the intention of writing a definitive history of the war. But after the war was over he decided not to write the book because too many good Americans would have their reputations sullied by accounts of their misconduct during the war. Beforehe died, at the age of ninety-five in 1824, he had all his notes burned.
Throughout the centuries pacifists have insisted that one of history's great lessons is that violence does not resolve disagreement. It always leads to more violence. Among those who reject nonviolence this contention is rigorously disputed. What cannot be disputed is that in the 1770s the American colonists chose violence over nonviolence, war over negotiation. A generation later, in 1812, the British and Americans went to war once more.
VII
The professed object of war generally is to preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace; but war never did and never will preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace, for it is a divine decree that all nations who take the sword shall perish with the sword. War is no more adapted to preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace than midnight darkness is to produce noonday light.
—DAVID LOW DODGE,
War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ, 1815
E ven to those who reject the concept that there are just and unjust wars, it is clear that some wars have better arguments than others. The War of 1812 was not an easy one to sell. The Federalists, the more conservative of the two political parties in the United States, all opposed it. While it was supposed to be a war with the British, more than half of the enemy were Canadians, local militias raised in the loyal northern colonies. It was the first American war to spur a large antiwar movement, though like most effective antiwar movements this one drew as many objectors on economic grounds as it did on moral ones.
Those who objected on moral grounds were not all Quakers or from other peace sects. The man who is considered the first American peace activist was an affluent New York merchant and devout
We are indoctrinated by the image of “Patriots” who fought to free Americans, but some were brutal, some were bloodthirsty, and some agreed to fight only because of a lack of alternatives, which is one of the principal ways armies are raised. Most soldiers did not volunteer to fight for liberty. Immediately following the outbreak of war the rebelling colonies each issued their own draft laws, which included fines and sometimes imprisonment for conscientious objectors. But there also were many volunteers including, to John Adams's surprise, entire companies of Quakers.
Like all wars, the American Revolution filled its participants with horror. But its survivors were not allowed to commit such an unpatriotic act as discussing their experiences, and veterans were little cared for. Widows of enlisted men were not given pensions until 1832.
Typical of the postrevolutionary spirit was Charles Thomson, an Irish-born enthusiast of the American cause who was said to know as much about the war as any man alive. A friend of Benjamin Franklin and other key players, he served as secretary to the Continental Congress from 1774 until 1789. All during the Revolution he took detailed notes with the intention of writing a definitive history of the war. But after the war was over he decided not to write the book because too many good Americans would have their reputations sullied by accounts of their misconduct during the war. Beforehe died, at the age of ninety-five in 1824, he had all his notes burned.
Throughout the centuries pacifists have insisted that one of history's great lessons is that violence does not resolve disagreement. It always leads to more violence. Among those who reject nonviolence this contention is rigorously disputed. What cannot be disputed is that in the 1770s the American colonists chose violence over nonviolence, war over negotiation. A generation later, in 1812, the British and Americans went to war once more.
VII
The professed object of war generally is to preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace; but war never did and never will preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace, for it is a divine decree that all nations who take the sword shall perish with the sword. War is no more adapted to preserve liberty and produce a lasting peace than midnight darkness is to produce noonday light.
—DAVID LOW DODGE,
War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ, 1815
E ven to those who reject the concept that there are just and unjust wars, it is clear that some wars have better arguments than others. The War of 1812 was not an easy one to sell. The Federalists, the more conservative of the two political parties in the United States, all opposed it. While it was supposed to be a war with the British, more than half of the enemy were Canadians, local militias raised in the loyal northern colonies. It was the first American war to spur a large antiwar movement, though like most effective antiwar movements this one drew as many objectors on economic grounds as it did on moral ones.
Those who objected on moral grounds were not all Quakers or from other peace sects. The man who is considered the first American peace activist was an affluent New York merchant and devout
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