The very rare first edition of an influential text in the Pennsylvania Quaker debates surrounding the proposed formation of the colony’s first armed militia.
This pamphlet’s publisher, Benjamin Franklin, was the founder of the militia (known as the Association) and had a vested interest in the debate surrounding it. John Smith here provides a refutation of Gilbert Tennent’s theological argument for a defensive war. One thousand copies of this first edition were printed in January of 1748. It is significantly rarer than the second edition which came out the following month. Furthermore this copy comes with excellent contemporary provenance - the 1769 ownership inscription of Hugh Roberts, Franklin’s Philadelphia contemporary and close friend.
Prior to the 1740s Pennsylvania had been uniquely sheltered from invasion and harassment by its location inland, and its historically peaceful relations with the surrounding indigenous people of the Lenape Nation. As King George’s War raged on coastal colonies and at the frontiers between British and French territories, the conflict finally reached Pennsylvania in 1747, as privateers made their way up the Delaware River and attacked ships and settlements along the way.
Preceding these attacks, the Quaker legislature had already debated and dismissed the idea of a military force to defend the colony. “A political entity whose legislative body was dominated by pacifists, Pennsylvania’s situation was unparalleled in the mainland American colonies and the world to date […] With the government paralyzed by pacifism and lack of executive leadership, an unofficial response to Philadelphia’s defencelessness was needed. Into the breach stepped Benjamin Franklin with a Solution to what seemed an insoluble problem” (Gannon).
Franklin had, in 1747, outlined his own argument in his book Plain Truth, which not only explored the theological ramifications of taking up arms, but also dramatised the various threats which were making the formation of a militia like the Association a necessity.
As with any major theological discussion amongst Quakers, the issue exploded into print. “This controversy is encompassed in eleven separate English language publications listed in Evans’ American Imprints. Since these works often consciously respond to each other, they collectively represent one community’s discussion of a vital issue, the legitimacy, or lack there of, for war and military preparedness” (Gannon).
John Smith (1722-1771) was a wealthy Quaker merchant and prominent figure in Philadelphia. He served on many civic committees, was elected to the Assembly, was a founding member of the Philadelphia fire company, and the first manager of the hospital. Rather than a straightforward endorsement of the Association, as one might expect from the press of its founder at this pivotal time, the present pamphlet is a refutation of a previous affirmation, deeply explored in scriptural terms. Reverend Gilbert Tennent, a leading spokesman of the Great Awakening, had “leant the weight of his authority in 1748 to the newly formed Association for the defence of the province with a sermon on ‘The Lawfulness of Defensive War.’ John Smith was ‘so moved at the deceit and Quirks in it’ that he forthwith composed an answer” (Tolles).
Smith’s vindication was to reassert the Quaker doctrines of pacifism, addressing what he saw as Tennent’s manipulation of scripture to lead Quakers morally astray through his justification of defensive war. He “contends that ‘God created Man good, upright and holy; and had he continued in this state, there never would be any War, and consequently no need of Self Defence; but Man falling, thro’ Disobedience, his nature became corrupted, his faculties depraved, and the whole intellectual System disordered.’ It was thus the fall of man in Genesis that ‘began shedding of Blood, and the Earth was early filled with Violence. This was the unhappy Consequence of Sin.’ Smith hopes that Tennent does not believe that ‘God was the Author of Nature thus corrupted’” (Gannon).
That so much of this debate was printed within the first six months of 1748, is a testament to its ferocity and urgency. Smith records “his gratification that on the day of publication ‘the printer’s house & indeed my own was like a fair–people came so thick to get them. D. Hall told me that he never saw a pamphlet so much Request at first coming out in London’” (Tolles). Tennent’s response was published in April, refuting Smith’s argument point by point.
In spite of counterarguments like the present, Franklin’s Pennsylvania militia was a successful venture, proving invaluable to the state during the French and Indian War in the decade to come. The debates around pacifism, however, “foreshadowed the ultimate demise of ‘Friends’ rule in colonial Pennsylvania, for here were the magistrates which failed in their duty: they were forced out of office eight years later because of their unwillingness to defend the colony” (Gannon).
Provenance: boldly signed on [1] Hugh Roberts 1769. Roberts (c.1706-1786) was a prominent Philadelphia Quaker merchant and one of Benjamin Franklin’s closest friends. They served together on the Assembly, and they were actively involved together with such civic projects as the Junto, the formation of the Library Company, the Union Fire Company and the Pennsylvania Hospital. His father was the mayor of Philadelphia, and he almost certainly would also have been acquainted with John Smith. A pencil notation to the nineteenth century front free endpaper further attests that this copy was sold as lot 1049 in the 1864 ‘A Catalogue of the Entire Library of Andrew Wight’.
This book is rare. OCLC finds copies at: NY Historical Soc, Library of Congress, Boston Public, Clements, Case Western, American Philosophical Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, U. Penn, Yale & JCB.
Evans, 6239; Miller, 456. Gannon, Barbara A. “The Lord is a Man of War, The God of Love and Peace: The Association Debate, Philadelphia 1747-1748.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Vol. 65. No. 1, Benjamin Franklin and His Enemies. Winter 1998, pp.46-61; Tolles, Frederick B. “A Literary Quaker: John Smith of Burlington and Philadelphia”. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 1941. pp.300-333.
