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A History of Canadian Yearly Meeting
Friends and Peace: Quaker Pacifist
Influence in Ontario to the Early 20th Century
by Lise Hansen
Friends in the Niagara Peninsula 1786-1802
by Richard MacMaster
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Friends and Peace:
Quaker Pacifist Influence in Ontario to the Early Twentieth
Century
By Lise Hansen
The Quaker quest for peace, rooted in seventeenth century England,
branched into Ontario more than two hundred years later and continued
to flourish and expand. In 1661, the Society of Friends made this
declaration of conscience to King Charles of England.
"We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with
outward weapons, for any end or under any pretense whatsoever. And
this is our testimony to the whole world. The spirit of Christ,
by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command
us from a thing as evil and again to move into it, and we certainly
do know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ
which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war
against any man with outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of
Christ, nor for the kingdoms of the world."
War and strife followed Friends to the new British colony where
maintaining non-compliance with war and its mechanisms proved difficult.
Internal differences divided and reduced their membership but Quaker
commitment to peace remained. During their early years in Upper
Canada, the scope of their quest was limited to philanthropy and
the avoidance of military service. But during the early twentieth
century, due to their effective use of conciliation and their firm
belief that war is basically wrong, Quakers influenced and became
actively involved with other Ontarians in addressing the causes
of war. Thus, the historical development of the Society of Friends
in Ontario has, of necessity and desire, included political conciliation,
pacifist activism and promotion of arbitration as a route to peace
on a local and global scale.
During the first century and a half in Ontario, Quaker membership
declined due to schisms and strict codes of conduct. The structure
and principles of the society guided the remaining members towards
a leadership role in the promotion of peace in Ontario. The fundamental
ideals of Quaker opposition to war are religious and ethical whereas,
other concerns, such as economics, are subsidiary to the main positions
of Christian peace and conscience.(1) In their early days in Ontario,
Quaker customs of plain dress and speech set them apart from their
neighbours. Codes demanding adherence to Quaker principles were
strong, therefore those who diverged were disowned by their congregations
or 'meetings'. Whereas, other Protestant denominations offered "overpowering
emotionalism", Quaker meetings ideally were, and still are, quiet
affairs at which men and women, as equals, seek to listen and share
in a search for the truth. As arguing and voting are felt to be
divisive, language is seen as a peacekeeping device in which "each
insight refines the other until the groupšs ideas have been blended
into an agreeable and creative solution".(2) This process starts
at several constituent preparative meetings held in anticipation
of the 'Monthly Meeting'. Representatives of all Monthly Meetings
attend 'Quarterly' or 'Half Yearly Meetings' and the representatives
of these meetings attend the highest jurisdiction, the 'Yearly Meeting'.(3)
Throughout the process consensus is sought, thus Yearly Meeting
decisions reflect the entire membership. This process is slow and
cumbersome but relatively effective in achieving unity. However,
on three occasions in the 1800šs consensus could not be reached
resulting in schisms which diminished membership dramatically.(4)
By the turn of the twentieth century, there were three doctrinally
separate Yearly Meetings in Ontario with a combined total of approximately
twelve hundred members, less than one-quarter of their former total.
Whereas, each new group maintained affiliation with American Friends,
they had practically no contact with Friends who had settled in
the Maritimes. Ontario Friends who later migrated to western Canada
developed strong ties with Western American Friends.(5) Natural,
geographic access has played a more important role to Canadian Quaker
associations than have political boundaries. Strong affiliations
within the society do not, however, preclude strong association
with the non-Quaker community, therefore the conciliatory process
practiced in meetings tends to spill over into their dealings with
the larger society.
The first American Quakers who settled in Upper Canada in 1784,
and those who followed, were part of a great migration of Americans
which lasted until the 1820's.(6) Some pro-British Quakers fled
the United States to be free of political persecution and post-revolutionary
economic hardship.(7) Although not technically United Empire Loyalists,
the Quakers were invited and welcomed to Upper Canada by Lieutenant-Governor
John Graves Simcoe because of their qualities of honesty and hard
work, as well as their sense of community building in the wilderness.(8)
Although, a few American Quakers fought for the British (and lost
Quaker membership as a result), those who had not fought had at
least not supported the revolution.(9) Although, Simcoe would have
preferred to populate Upper Canada with members of the Church of
England who would have been willing to further British ideals, including
a strong militia, insufficient numbers of Anglicans were available.(10)
Therefore, he enticed the American peace sects, including the Quakers,
Mennonites and Tunkers, to Upper Canada with promises of the benefits
of British law, an abundance of land, and respect for their pacifist
ideals.
These ideals were reflected in the Militia Act of Upper Canada of
1791 which excused the peace sects from military service, but in
lieu of bearing arms the law imposed a tax on all military-aged
objectors. Whereas the Mennonites felt that the tax was simply an
imposition and a financial hardship, the Quakers could not reconcile
payment with their religious principles as paying money for the
support of war was tantamount to supporting war.(11) The Quakers,
therefore refused to pay the tax and, as a result, their goods were
frequently seized and sold to cover the amount of the tax.
As an ill-will was brewing, not only between the Quakers and the
government, but between the Americans and the British, Quaker leaders
felt a need to reassert their principles of non-compliance. In 1806,
Timothy Rogers and Amos Armitage of Yonge Street Monthly Meeting
met with Lieutenant-Governor Gore to advise him of Quaker loyalty
to the existing government and to reaffirm Quaker opposition to
war.(12) The Governor indicated his support and acknowledged the
Quaker peace testimony. Nonetheless, in 1809, a law was passed authorizing
military officials to impress horses, carriages, and oxen to be
used for military defence and imposing jail sentences upon religious
objectors who had not paid their tax in lieu of military service.(13)
Men from the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting, which was located on
a military road, were regularly jailed or went into hiding to avoid
imprisonment.(14) Local meetings suffered confiscations estimated
in the thousands of dollars.(15) These impressments, seizures and
incarcerations resulted in a strong, active lobby by each of the
peace sects for the repeal of the 1809 statute.(16) During the following
War of 1812, the Anglican governing class of Upper Canada suspected
all American immigrants of disloyalty to the Crown. Thus, settlers
were, for a while, threatened with the loss of their land and at
least one Quaker lost his right to vote and hold office.(17) Yet,
for the most part, despite physical and emotional hardship, Ontario
Friends refused to be co-opted into this war effort.
Members of the next generation, however, found themselves embroiled
in armed political conflict with the governing class of Upper Canada
causing unsettling effects in the Quaker community.(18) Despite
their peace testimony several young Quakers decided to participate
in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 and 1838. After years of intimidation
some individual convictions to peace principles faded in the midst
of social and political injustice. A few of the Quakers who were
involved in the insurrection were subsequently caught and served
prison terms. One was hanged for treason. Within the society those
who did not admit error in bearing arms were disowned by their meetings.(19)
Shaken by these events, some meetings felt it was best to withdraw
from external influences and a period of relative quietude followed.
This stance was reinforced when in 1849, the three peace sects received
a blanket unconditional exemption from military duty by the government
of Canada West, resulting in a period of decreased political activism
by the Quakers.(20)
Throughout their history in Ontario, Friends had been and continued
to be active in the promotion of social justice. They took a leading
role in Ontario in supporting the 'underground railway', the mechanism
which allowed American blacks to escape slavery, and helped the
fugitives to adjust to their new life in Ontario. Far ahead of public
sentiment, they advocated equal rights, universal suffrage, prison
reform, and the abolition of capital punishment.(21) They petitioned
the Canadian government for acceptance of Doukhobour refugees into
Canada and for the fair treatment of Hindus in British Columbia.(22)
Through promotion of social issues such as these, Friends developed
expertise which would stand them in good stead in the fight for
peace.
After Canadian Confederation in 1867, the first Canada Yearly Meeting
of Friends, held at Pickering, Ontario, delivered a statement of
the Quaker position on war, oaths and liberty of conscience to Governor-General
Monck and Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, in an attempt to maintain
the exemptions contained in the Militia Act of 1849.(23) Subsequently,
the new Dominion of Canada reaffirmed the Militia Law as it stood
at this time.
In the new province of Ontario, Quakers resumed their lobby for
non-aggression. In 1869, the Canada Yearly Meeting formed a committee
to address the aggressive nationalism that appeared in Ontario's
public school text books. In 1891, each of the three Yearly Meetings
in Ontario became affiliated with "The Peace Association of Friends
of America", which historian Arthur Dorland refers to as "the most
important peace organization among Friends in the western hemisphere
at the time". By 1895, Quakers of Ontario were influenced by the
Quaker-inspired Lake Mohonk Conference of New York, which favoured
arbitration instead of war as a method of settling international
disputes. In 1896, the Genesee Yearly Meeting sent a deputation
to Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier, urging him, among other things,
to address the responsibility of public men to curb militarism.(24)
These were precursors to activities in the wars which followed.
In 1899, when the British government became embroiled in the Boer
War the Quakers passed and published strong anti-war resolutions,
while the only other protestant body in Ontario to express opposition
was the Women's Christian Temperance Union (whose membership included
many Quaker women). Presbyterian and Methodist church newspapers
actually endorsed the war.(25) Opponents of war were labelled an
ineffectual and unrepresentative body of agitators, chronic objectors,
traitors, and villains.(26) Nevertheless, Friends persisted in their
denunciation of strife and at the conclusion of the war the "Friends
Association of Toronto" helped organize the non-denominational "Peace
and Arbitration Society", the first non-secular peace organization
in Canada. It adopted the statement of the Lake Mohonk Conference
favouring peace and arbitration. This document was then endorsed
by the Boards of Trade of Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton as well
as the Farmers Convention of Ontario, several churches and civic
and religious leaders.(27) Notable among those who endorsed the
statement were Quakers, Charles Zavitz, interim president of Guelph
Agricultural College and Elias Rogers, businessman and Liberal politician.
The Society eventually attracted over a thousand members headed
by Sir William Mulock, chief justice of the Ontario High Court of
Justice. In 1907, as a response to the popular peace movement, a
resolution to turn the Hague Conference into a permanent international
congress with powers of arbitration was endorsed by the Ontario
Legislature. As a result of the influence of the Peace and Arbitration
Society, the Presbyterian Assembly, in 1911, condemned war as contrary
to Christian morals. Methodists involved in the Peace and Arbitration
Society proposed labour strikes in protest of war.(28) Thus, the
early public support for the Boer War was transformed by many into
revulsion for war after its conclusion.
In Ontario, principles of peace were regaining public favour, however
no peace mechanism had been created to enable "Christian good-will
to express itself". The chairman of the Peace and Arbitration Committee
lamented that within Ontario society peace had "been accepted generally
as a beautiful abstract idea, worthy of realization, but impracticable,
and war as undesirable, yet necessary and practical".(29) The Canada
Yearly Meeting then called for Quakers to take a lead in instituting
a peace movement which would be "memorable in history".(30)
Pacifists in Ontario underwent a transition and adjustment to social
reality. According to historian Thomas Socknat, there are those
who believe that war is inhumane and irrational and should be prevented,
but is sometimes necessary, and those who believe that war is absolutely
and always wrong.(31) Religious groups who oppose war in the abstract
but who become convinced that some wars are just fall in the first
category while sectarian pacifists like the Quakers and Mennonites
fall into the second category. Historian Peter Brock labels Mennonites
as 'separational' pacifists who maintain their pacifist stance exclusive
of outer society and thus had less influence on the peace movement.
Quakers are referred to as 'integrational' pacifists whose ideals
led to social change.(32) The Quaker transition during the Boer
War and the upcoming Great War was in methodology not in the basic
principle of religious non-compliance with war and its mechanisms.
Socknat contends that "Quakers went beyond negative anti-militarism
and... began to relate war to socioeconomic conditions and to encourage
interest in international affairs."(33) In 1913, the Genessee Yearly
Meeting at Coldstream, Ontario expressed a need for change of the
basis of its operations "to give more liberty to each monthly meeting"
hoping that Quaker effectiveness in reaching its goals would be
enhanced.(34) The Canadian Peace and Arbitration Society, a wing
of this meeting, called for celebration of one hundred years of
peace with the United States, and the formation of neighbourhood
peace societies, and the observance of Peace Sunday to counter military
propaganda.(35) At Newmarket, in the same year, the Canada Yearly
Meeting Committee on Peace delivered a resolution to the government
and people of Canada expressing "the earnest concern of Friends"
that Canada should encourage peace and arbitration both nationally
and internationally rather than to continue increasing expenditures
and activity in preparation for war and 'so called' defense. It
went on to suggest that money appropriated for the military would
be better spent on the establishment of a 'Canadian Peace Commission'
to help eliminate distrust between nations and to help stem the
tide of militarism in Canada.(36) Quaker writer David Starr Jordan,
in the same year, reported on Canadian involvement in the military.
He contended that the campaign for naval defense of Canada was coincident
with three allied syndicates attempting to sell armaments at enormous
profits to both sides of the dispute and to drum up fear of aggression.(37)
As indicated earlier, promotion of militarism in Ontario's schools
had drawn Quaker attention as early as 1869. Cadet training had
been instituted in Ontario in the 1880's and had blossomed since
the Boer War. A huge cadet parade became an annual event in Toronto
on Empire Day.(38) This fostering of aggression was once again addressed
by Friends. The Canada Yearly Meeting contended that militarism
in schools should be supplanted by "intelligent teaching as to the
terrible results of war economically and morally to a nation."(39)
Prior to 1914, massive armies had been building up in Europe and
politicians declared that such action alone was a deterrent to war.
However, neither massive armaments nor peace rhetoric would prove
to stop the inevitable war. Some political, church, farm, labour
and women's groups endorsed peace and arbitration in a general sense
but did not connect it with the economic structure of society nor
did they have a solid commitment to its implementation.(40) When
war erupted in Europe, Ontario's commitment to peace declined rapidly.
Conclusion
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