Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I QUAKER CONSTITUTIONALISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE, C. 1652–1763
- 1 Bureaucratic Libertines: The Origins of Quaker Constitutionalism and Civil Dissent
- 2 A Sacred Institution: The Quaker Theory of a Civil Constitution
- 3 “Dissenters in Our Own Country”: Constituting a Quaker Government in Pennsylvania
- 4 Civil Unity and “Seeds of Dissention” in the Golden Age of Quaker Theocracy
- 5 The Fruits of Quaker Dissent: Political Schism and the Rise of John Dickinson
- II THE POLITICAL QUAKERISM OF JOHN DICKINSON, 1763–1789
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
1 - Bureaucratic Libertines: The Origins of Quaker Constitutionalism and Civil Dissent
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- I QUAKER CONSTITUTIONALISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE, C. 1652–1763
- 1 Bureaucratic Libertines: The Origins of Quaker Constitutionalism and Civil Dissent
- 2 A Sacred Institution: The Quaker Theory of a Civil Constitution
- 3 “Dissenters in Our Own Country”: Constituting a Quaker Government in Pennsylvania
- 4 Civil Unity and “Seeds of Dissention” in the Golden Age of Quaker Theocracy
- 5 The Fruits of Quaker Dissent: Political Schism and the Rise of John Dickinson
- II THE POLITICAL QUAKERISM OF JOHN DICKINSON, 1763–1789
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
The Quakers' conception of a political constitution and their understanding of acceptable forms of civil dissent were based on their theology, ecclesiology, and experiences with the English and Massachusetts governments during the Interregnum and Restoration. This chapter gives an overview of the religious structures and processes that were evolving in Quaker society in the mid-1650s through the 1670s and that informed their political thought.
The Quaker ecclesiastical polity was animated by a bureaucratic process that determined how the members of the meeting related to each other and to the world outside their Society. If we think of their authority and their modus operandi in Weberian terms – legal-rational, traditional, or charismatic – it does not fit into any one of these categories; rather it rejected the second and is an amalgam of the first and the third. It was not a category Weber envisioned, and it can be described most simply as a “legal-charismatic” model. It was based on the “rule of law,” but instead of being rooted in rationality, as Weber's model is, it was based on charisma. Further, rather than this charisma being unique to one individual, it was found in each member of the group. There was a paradox in Quaker theologico-political thought and expression that is captured in the name “bureaucratic libertines.” Their bureaucratic process was designed to produce charismatically based unity and dissent in the ecclesiastical and civil polities, and with both of these things aimed at the same purpose – discovering God's law.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, and , eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978)Google Scholar
, The Transformation of American Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800–1907 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), 9.Google Scholar
Blown by the Spirit: Puritanism and the Emergence of an Antinomian Underground in Pre-Civil War England (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004)Google Scholar
, Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophesy in Seventeenth-Century England (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 1.Google Scholar
, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity [1676] (New York: Samuel Woods and Sons, 1827), 18–19Google Scholar
, The Quakers in the American Colonies (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1966), xxi–xxiiGoogle Scholar
, “The Marrow of Puritan Divinity,” in Errand into the Wilderness (Cambridge: Belknap Press, Harvard University, 1956), 48–98.Google Scholar
calls the Light within “a private source of law” in Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 25Google Scholar
, “[k]nowledge of God was individual and could not be judged by another” (“A Mixed Multitude”: The Struggle for Toleration in Colonial Pennsylvania [New York: New York University Press, 1987], 13).Google Scholar
, “The Concept of the Church in Seventeenth-Century Quakerism (Part I),” The Bulletin of Friends Historical Association vol. 45, no. 2 (1965), 67–81, 69.Google Scholar
, “The Genesis and Transformation of Charismatic Authority,” in Economy and Society 2: 1121–57
, Beyond Majority Rule: Voteless Decisions in the Religious Society of Friends (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 1996), 30–35Google Scholar
, The Christian-Quaker, Distinguished from the Apostate & Innovator (London, 1680), 45.Google Scholar
, Quaker Journals: Varieties of Religious Experience among Friends (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1972), 30.Google Scholar
, A Few Plain Words to be considered by those of the Army, or others that would have a parliament that is chosen by the voices of the people, to govern three nations. Wherein is shewn unto them according to the Scripture of Truth, that a parliament so chosen are not likely to govern for God and the good of his people (London, 1660).Google Scholar
, Journal of the Life, Travels, and Gospel Labours of that Faithful Servant and Minister of Christ, Job Scott (London, 1815), 124.Google Scholar
, A Critical Examination of the Marquis de Chatellux's Travels in North America in a Letter Addressed to the Marquis; Principally Intended as a Refutation of his Opinions Concerning the Quakers, the Negroes, the People, and Mankind (Philadelphia, 1788), 25.Google Scholar
, “‘Tender Plants’: Quaker Farmers and Children in the Delaware Valley, 1681–1735,” Journal of Family History vol. 3, no. 2 (1978), 116–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “Singing in the Spirit in Early Quakerism,” Quaker History vol. 73 (1984), 1–13, esp. 10–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, ed., Political Language and Oratory in Traditional Society (New York: Academic Press, 1975).Google Scholar
, “‘Pillars in the Same Temple and Priests of the Same Worship’: Women's Rights and the Politics of Church and State in Antebellum America,” The Journal of American History vol. 85, no. 1 (1998), 98–128, 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, The Quaker Peace Testimony 1660 to 1914 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990)Google Scholar
, Walking in the Way of Peace: Quaker Pacifism in the Seventeenth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, A Declaration from the Harmles & Innocent People of GOD called Quakers. Against all Plotters and Fighters in the World (1660)
, The Quakers Plea, answering all Objections, and they proved to be no way dangerous, but Friends to the King: And may be tollerated in their Religion, with safety to the Kingdom (1661), 4–5
, A Portraiture of Quakerism. Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character of the Society of Friends, 3 vols. (New York: George Forman, 1806), 3: 29.Google Scholar
and , Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 49.Google Scholar
, “Soft Persuasion: A Rhetorical Analysis of John Woolman's Essays and ‘Journal,’” (Ph.D. Diss., Arizona State University, 1989).
, “Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes,” in , ed., The Journal and Major Essays of John Woolman (Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1989), 201.Google Scholar
, “The Life of William Dewsbury,” in and , eds., The Friends’ Library: Comprises Journals, Doctrinal Treatises, and Other Writings of the Religious Society of Friends (Philadelphia: J. Rakestraw, 1837–50), 2: 213–310, 233.Google Scholar
, “Dear Friends and Brethren, unto whom the salutation of my love reacheth” (1684) in Friends’ Library, 1: 55.Google Scholar
, “Some Account of the Life of Joseph Pike,” Friends’ Library, 2: 374–75.
, “Dear Friends and Brethren…,” in Friends’ Library, 1: 56.
, Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700–1775 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 36.Google Scholar
, The London Book Trade in the Later Seventeenth Century (Unpublished manuscript, Cambridge University: Sandars Lectures, 1976), 33.Google Scholar
, “Textuality and Legitimacy in the Printed Constitution” in The Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), 97–117Google Scholar
, “Quietism in the Society of Friends,” The Later Periods of Quakerism (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1970), 1: 57–103Google Scholar
, “The Sinews of the Antinomian Underground,” in Blown by the Spirit, 33–72.
treats Quaker speech in Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), esp. 117–126.Google Scholar
, Margaret Fell, Mother of Quakerism, 2nd ed. (York: William Sessions Book Trust, 1984)Google Scholar
, Margaret Fell and the Rise of Quakerism (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Quakerism no Christianity: Or, a Thorow Quaker no Christian proved by the Quakers Principles, detected out of their chief Writers…with…an Account of their Foundation laid in Popery (London, 1675), 120.Google Scholar
, Quakerism Anatomized, and Finally Dissected: Shewing, from Plain Fact, that a Rigid Quaker is a Cruel Persecutor (London, 1709), 423Google Scholar
, Neighbors, Friends, or Madmen: The Puritan Adjustment to Quakerism in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts Bay (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985)Google Scholar
, The Quakers in Boston, 1656–1964: Three Centuries of Friends in Boston and Cambridge (Friends Meeting at Cambridge, 1976)Google Scholar
, Quakers and the English Legal System, 1660–1688 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Quakers’ Efforts to Secure Civil and Religious Liberty, 1660–96,” The Journal of Modern History vol. 7, no. 4 (1935), 401–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, “The Life of William Reckitt,” in The Friends' Library: comprises journals, doctrinal treatises, and other writings of the Religious Society of Friends. William Evans and Thomas Evans, eds. 14 vols. Philadelphia: J. Rakestraw, 1837–50., 9: 54.
, A Quaker Experiment in Government: History of Quaker Government in Pennsylvania, 1682–1783 (Philadelphia: Ferris and Leach, 1902), 15.Google Scholar
, “Three Queries Propounded to the King and Parliament …” in Penington's Works (London, 1680), 406.Google Scholar
The Quaker No Occasional Conformist, but a Sincere Christian in his Life (London, 1703), 5–6.Google Scholar
, A discourse concerning riots: occasioned by some of the people called Quakers, being imprisoned and indicted for a riot, for only being at a peaceable meeting to worship God (London, 1683)Google Scholar
, A Cry against Oppression and Cruelty [1663], 3, in Quaker Tracts, vol. 6 (London, 1663–64).Google Scholar
, A Retrospective-Glass for the Quakers (1710) republished in A Finishing Stroke: Or, Some Gleanings, Collected out of the Quakers Books…Whereby The Great Mystery of the Little Whore is farther Unfolded (London, 1712), 490.Google Scholar
, The Liberty of the Subject by Magna Carta (1664), 12
, “Between Local Knowledge and National Politics: Debating Rationales for Jury Nullification after Bushell's Case,” Yale Law Journal vol. 111, no. 7 (May 2002), 1815–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, Verdict according to Conscience: Perspectives on the English Criminal Jury Trial, 1200–1800 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
A True, Short, Impartial Relation Containing the Substance of the Proceedings at the Assize held the 12th and 13th day of the Moneth called August, 1664, 1, in Quaker Tracts, vol. 6 (London, 1663–64).Google Scholar
, An Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great-Britain over the Colonies in America (Philadelphia, 1774), 34.Google Scholar