"It is the Land which the territorial party represents in Parliament. . . . That is the theory of the Constitution: Blackstone says so. But it is a thing which is not likely to be respected much longer, and it must go, even if involving the destruction of the Constitution."-Mr. BRIGHT.

From "Punch," February, 1859.

Caricature of John Bright.

By

AMELIA MOTT GUMMERE

Author of

"The Quaker: A Study in Costume"
"Witchcraft and Quakerism," etc.

"The Virtues which can be rewarded and the Vices which
can be punished, are not as a rule the Virtues or the
Vices which make or mar the Soul."—

HATCH. The Bampton Lectures.

ILLUSTRATED

THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.

PHILADELPHIA

INTRODUCTION

This little study of an aspect of Quakerism which has hitherto received no attention, was suggested by the question of a Professor of History in a New England college, who asked when the Quakers obtained the franchise in America? His question led to an investigation, showing three widely differing conditions in New England, Pennsylvania and the South, where the established churches were in the beginning respectively, Puritan, Quaker and the Church of England. The following pages are offered as a slight contribution to an interesting aspect of history.

Quakerism has made an impression upon the two great English speaking nations of the globe in a way that is not yet fully appreciated, although the subject is beginning to receive more careful attention at the hands of competent historians. It is not upon theology or philosophy that Quakerism has made its chief impress, although no history of these two great departments of knowledge can be complete, either in England or America, without reckoning with the Quaker. It is upon social history that his influence has chiefly told. The unique feature of his career has been that he largely succeeded in liv-' i

ing out his unwritten creed in a philosophy that made belief a conduct of life, and manifested to the world its practicability as a working theory. The Quaker as a citizen has done his duty as he conceived it in the most modest and unobtrusive manner possible. In commerce and in political life, where, as in the colony of Pennsylvania, Quakerism had a fair opportunity to show what it could accomplish, the theories of William Penn were sufficiently worked out to prove their practical value.

The democratic spirit of Quakerism early made itself felt in the political institutions of the American colonies. Perhaps nowhere in history is to be found a body of people who had been able so suddenly to separate themselves from ancient traditions, and in an old-world, aristocratic community, to develop ideas of political and religious freedom and equality. The Puritans of the seventeenth century came to Massachusetts, bringing with them the aristocratic institutions of their forefathers. It was only as the exigencies of colonial life demanded it, that the prevailing ideas of New England gradually assumed a more democratic character.

The Quaker becomes significant in American history when his share in bringing about this change is appreciated. By the time that he ap