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My friend passed by what I last said , again to return to the impossibility of living- in the world , we see around us , on such merely theoretical principles , ( for believing it our weak side , he chose to go back to our denial of the right of self-defence ) . But to reply was not difficult * " How does it happen that the large and most respectable body , of people-called Quakers , who , for ages , have tried the experiment , live as securely as any other description of persons , though
it is well knovvn that they never so resist , as to endanger the lives of those who attack them , and never prosecute for felony ? Yet , to say the least , it is a generally-admitted fact , that they are not more frequently the prey of highwaymen or house-breakers , than those who take the full
benefit ot our coercive civil code . " This stubborn fact my opponent could not deny , nor account for on any other ground than the natural generosity of man ' s nature , which thus manifests itself even in the most
depraved characters , generally shewing au indisposition to attack those who they know are restrained by principle from defending themselves . With respect to the necessity of defensive war between nations , I did not
fail to bring forward the glorious and most successful experiment of William Penn , who , we all know , settled a colony amongst the savage tribes of America , and without a single implement of offence or defence in their
possession from first to last , lived , during a long succession of years , in peace and perfect harmony in the midst of them . He began , indeed , as he went on , acting on the true
Christian maxim of ** doing to others as he would desire them to do to him . " He did not land on a strange shore , and take possession of what ground he pleased : had he done so , he must have built a fort , and filled it with
anried men to defend his unjust agression . The sum which this in the first outset would have cost , this just and truly wise man employed in purehas-U ) g the land from its natural owners , —and continuing watchful that strict justice sliould be at all times practised * n the dealings ivhich he encouraged for their mutual benefit , between his own people and them—he remained
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safe and uninjured in property amongst these untaught and lawless tribes , as a friend d Welling in the midst of friends . No one molested him or his , though they were in possession of
much that must have been highly desirable to the Indians ; and these were fully aware , that if a small number of their armed men had gone into the houses of Penn ' s people in Philadelphia or elsewhere , they might have taken whatever they pleased—no resistance would have been made at the
time , and nothing more in future was to be apprehended , than a fair statement of the case , and an appeal to the justice of their chiefs . While the entire management of Pennsylvania was permitted to remain
in the hands of those who might most truly be denominated friends , the Christian principles upon which they uniformly acted , proved themselves its amply sufficient defence ; and happily an experiment so deeply interesting to the whole human race , was suffered
to last fully long enough to convince the least willing to believe the possibility that it could be so , of its entire success ; proving that man is not born the natural enemy of his brother , but
that it is from early false associations which cause deeply-rooted prejudices and evil habits , that he has gone on frcm age to age , pursuing an occupation , and even considering it as honourable , which necessarily includes
in its practice , every species of vice and brutality which can be named I I perceive , Mr . Editor , that 1 am proceeding to a , length which I was
far from intending *—but I trust you wiLl indulge me a little farther ; the subject is of no common interest , and this is , perhaps , the only opportunity that I may have ,, of requesting the attention of your readers to it .
The great aim of the Peace Societies is to lead professing Christiana to consider whether they are acting as the disciples of him whom they call their Master , when they refuse to lay open a subject of such vast
importance before the eyes of their fellowmen . We need not fear that a change of long-established opinions should too rapidly take place . The poor and ignorant are generally slow of apprehension respecting matters they have never been taught to think of ,
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Mr s * tfugh ( s * s Vindication of Peace ~ $ octeiie $ * 325
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 325, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/5/
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