1755 An Address of Some of the Quakers to the Pennsylvania Assembly

To the Representatives of the Freemen of the Province of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met. The Address of some of the People called Quakers, in the said Province, on Behalf of Themselves and Others.

The Consideration of the Measures which have lately been pursued and are now Proposed having been weightily Impressed on Our Minds, We apprehend that we should fall short of Our Duty to you, to Ourselves, and to Our Brethren in Religious fellowship, If We did not in this Manner Inform you, That altho' We shall at all Times Heartily, and Freely Contribute according to Our Circumstances, either by the Payments of Taxes or in such other Manner as may be Judged necessary towards the Exigencies of Government, and sincerely Desire that due Care may be taken and proper Funds provided for Raising Money to cultivate Our Friendship with Our Indian Neighbors and to support Such of Our Fellow subjects Who are or may be 'in Distress, And for such other like Benevolent purposes, Yet as the raising sums of Money & putting them into the Hands of Committees who may Apply them to Purposes inconsistent with the Peaceable Testimony, We profess and have born to the World, appears to Us in its Consequences to bo Destructive of Our Religious Liberties.

We apprehend many among Us will be under the necessity of suffering rather than Consenting Thereto by the payment of a Tax for such Purposes, And thus the Fundamental Part of Our Constitution may be Essentially affected, and that Free enjoyment of Liberty of Conscience, For the sake of which our Forefathers left there Native Country and Settled this, Then a Wilderness by Degrees be violated.

We sincerely Assure you We have no Temporal Motives for Thus Addressing you, and could We have preserved Peace in Our own Minds and with Each other We should have Deelined it, being unwilling to give You any unnecessary Trouble and Deeply Sensible of yonr Difficulty in Discharging the Trust committed to you irreproachably in these Perilous times which hath Engaged our Fervent Desires that the immediate Instruction of Supreame Wisdom may Influence your Minds, and that being preserved in a steady attention thereto, you may be Enabled to secure Peace and Tranquility to yourselves and those you Represent by pursuing Measures Consistent with Our Peaceable Principles, and then We Trust We may Continue humbly to confide in the Protection of that -Almighty power whose Providence has heretofore been as Walls and Bulwarks round about us.
Anthony Morris, jr., Thomas Brown,
William Moode, Thos. Lightfoot,
Israel Pemberton, John Pemberton,