Chapter XV: First Trouble in Philadelphia

Transferring the story of the opposition to the ministry of Elias Hicks to Philadelphia, it would appear that its first public manifestation occurred in 1819. During this year he made his fifth somewhat extended religious visit to the meetings within the bounds of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Elias was attending the monthly meeting then held in the Pine Street meeting-house, and obtained liberty to visit the women's meeting. While absent on this concern, the men's meeting did the unprecedented thing of adjourning, the breaking up of the meeting being accomplished by a few influential members. For a co-ordinate branch of a meeting for discipline to close while service was being performed in the allied branch in accord with regular procedure was considered irregular, if not unwarranted. The real inspiring cause for this conduct has been stated as follows by a contemporary writer:

"An influential member of this meeting who had abstained from the
produce of slave labor came to the conclusion that this action was
the result of his own will. He therefore became very sensitive and
irritable touching references to the slavery question, and very
bitter against the testimony of Elias Hicks. It is believed that this
was one of the causes which led to the affront of Elias Hicks in the
Pine Street Meeting aforesaid."[114]

[114] "A review of the general and particular causes which have produced the late disorders and divisions in the Yearly Meeting of Friends, held in Philadelphia," James Cockburn, 1829, p. 60.

It was claimed in the famous New Jersey chancery case[115] by the Orthodox Friends, that there was precedent for adjourning a meeting while a visiting minister in proper order was performing service in a co-ordinate branch of the Society. Be that as it may, the weight of evidence warrants the conclusion that the incident at Pine Street was intended as an affront to Elias Hicks. The conservative elements in Philadelphia had evidently made up their minds that the time had come to visit their displeasure upon the Long Island preacher.

[115] Foster's report, many times referred to in these pages, is a two-volume work, containing the evidence and the exhibits in a case in the New Jersey Court of Chancery. The examinations began Sixth month 2, 1830, in Camden, N. J., before J. J. Foster, Master and Examiner in Chancery, and continued from time to time, closing Fourth month 13, 1831. The case was brought to determine who should possess the school fund, of the Friends' School, at Crosswick, N. J. The decision awarded the fund to the Orthodox.

The incident referred to above must have occurred in the latter part of Tenth month. Elias says in his Journal, after mentioning his arrival in Philadelphia: "We were at two of their monthly meetings and their quarterly meeting."[116] He makes no mention of the unpleasant occurrence.

[116] Journal, p. 382.

There seems to have been no further appearance of trouble in the latitude of Philadelphia until Eighth month, 1822. This time opposition appeared in what was evidently an irregular gathering of part of the Meeting for Sufferings. At this meeting Jonathan Evans is reported to have said: "I understand that Elias Hicks is coming on here on his way to Baltimore Yearly Meeting. Friends know that he preaches doctrines contrary to the doctrines of our Society; that he has given uneasiness to his friends at home, and they can't stop him, and unless we can stop him here he must go on."[117] This statement was only partially true, to say the most possible for it. But a small minority of Elias' home meeting were in any way "uneasy" about him, whatever may have been the character of his preaching. It stands to reason that had there been a general and united opposition to the ministry of Elias Hicks in his monthly meeting or in the New York Yearly Meeting at any time before the "separation," he could not have performed the service involved in his religious visits. It will also appear from the foregoing that the few opponents of Elias Hicks on Long Island had evidently planned to invoke every possible and conceivable influence, at the center of Quakerism in Philadelphia, to silence this popular and well-known preacher. At what point the influence so disposed became of general effect in the polity of the Society only incidentally belongs to the purpose of this book.

[117] "Foster's Report," pp. 355-356.

Out of the unofficial body[118] above mentioned, about a dozen in number, a small and "select" committee was appointed. The object was apparently to deal with Elias for remarks said to have been made by him at New York Yearly Meeting in Fifth month of that year, and reported by Joseph Whitall.

[118] "Foster's Report," 1831, Vol. I. See testimony of Joseph Whitall, p. 247. Also testimony of Abraham Lower, pp. 355-356.

The minute under which Elias performed the visit referred to above was granted by his monthly meeting in Seventh month, and he promptly set out on his visit with David Seaman as his traveling companion. He spent nearly three months visiting meetings in New Jersey and in Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester Counties, Pennsylvania, reaching Baltimore the 25th of Tenth month, where he attended the Yearly Meeting. This appearance and service in Philadelphia, he states very briefly, and with no hint of the developing trouble, as follows:

"We arrived in Philadelphia in the early part of Twelfth month, and I
immediately entered on the arduous concern which I had in prospect
and which I was favored soon comfortably to accomplish. We visited
the families composing Green Street Monthly Meeting, being in number
one hundred and forty, and we also attended that monthly meeting and
the monthly meeting for the Northern District. This closed my visit
here, and set me at liberty to turn my face homeward."[119]

[119] Journal, p. 394.

It will thus be seen that the charge of unsoundness was entered in Philadelphia Meeting for Sufferings soon after Elias started on his southern visit, but the matter was held practically in suspense for four months. In the meantime Elias was waited upon by a few elders, presumably in accordance with the action of the Meeting for Sufferings held in Eighth month. This opportunity was had when the visitor passed through Philadelphia en route to Baltimore. There is reason for believing that Elias succeeded in measurably satisfying this small committee. But there was evidently an element in Philadelphia that did not propose to be satisfied.

In Twelfth month, when Elias arrived in Philadelphia from his southern trip, and began his visits among the families of Green Street Monthly Meeting, a meeting of the elders of all the monthly meetings in the city was hastily called. A deputation from the elders sought an "opportunity" with Elias, and insisted that it be _private_.[120] His position was that he was not accountable to them for anything he had said while traveling with a minute as a minister. Elias finally consented, out of regard to some particular Friends, to meet the elders in Green Street meeting-house, provided witnesses other than the opposing elders could be present. Among those who accompanied Elias were John Comly, Robert Moore, John Moore and John Hunt. When the meeting was held, however, the elders who opposed Elias said they could not proceed, their reason being that the gathering was not "select." In connection with this controversy letters passed between the opposing parties. One was signed by ten elders of Philadelphia, and is as follows:

[120] "Foster's Report," pp. 359-360. "Cockburn's Review," p. 66.

"TO ELIAS HICKS:

"Friends in Philadelphia having for a considerable time past heard of
thy holding and promulgating doctrines different from and repugnant
to those held by our religious society, it was cause of uneasiness
and deep concern to them, as their sincere regard and engagement for
the promotion of the cause of Truth made it very desirable that all
the members of our religious society should move in true harmony
under the leading and direction of our blessed Redeemer. Upon being
informed of thy sentiments expressed by Joseph Whitall--that Jesus
Christ was not the son of God until after the baptism of John and the
descent of the Holy Ghost, and that he was no more than a man; that
the same power that made Christ a Christian must make us Christians;
and that the same power that saved Him must save us--many friends
were affected therewith, and some time afterward, several Friends
being together in the city on subjects relating to our religious
society, they received an account from Ezra Comfort of some of thy
expressions in the public general meeting immediately succeeding the
Southern Quarterly Meeting lately held in the state of Delaware,
which was also confirmed by his companion, Isaiah Bell, that Jesus
Christ was the first man who introduced the gospel dispensation,
the Jews being under the outward or ceremonial law or dispensation,
it was necessary that there should be some outward miracle, as the
healing of the outward infirmities of the flesh and raising the
outward dead bodies in order to introduce the gospel dispensation; He
had no more power given Him than man, for He was no more than man;
He had nothing to do with the healing of the soul, for that belongs
to God only; Elisha had the same power to raise the dead; that man
being obedient to the spirit of God in him could arrive at as great,
or a greater, degree of righteousness than Jesus Christ; that 'Jesus
Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God; neither do I
think it robbery for man to be equal with God'; then endeavored
to show that by attending to that stone cut out of the mountain
without hands, or the seed in man, it would make man equal with God,
saying: for that stone in man was the entire God. On hearing which it
appeared to Friends a subject of such great importance and of such
deep welfare to the interest of our religious society as to require
an extension of care, in order that if any incorrect statement had
been made it should as soon as possible be rectified, or, if true,
thou might be possessed of the painful concerns of Friends and their
sense and judgment thereon. Two of the elders accordingly waited
on thee on the evening of the day of thy arriving in the city,
and although thou denied the statement, yet thy declining to meet
these two elders in company with those who made it left the minds
of Friends without relief. One of the elders who had called on thee
repeated his visit on the next day but one, and again requested thee
to see the two elders and the Friends who made the above statements
which thou again declined. The elders from the different Monthly
Meetings of the city were then convened and requested a private
opportunity with thee, which thou also refused, yet the next day
consented to meet them at a time and place of thy own fixing; but,
when assembled, a mixed company being collected, the elders could
not in this manner enter into business which they considered of a
nature not to be investigated in any other way than in a select,
private opportunity. They, therefore, considered that meeting a clear
indication of thy continuing to decline to meet the elders as by them
proposed. Under these circumstances, it appearing that thou art not
willing to hear and disprove the charges brought against thee, we
feel it a duty to declare that we cannot have religious unity with
thy conduct nor with the doctrines thou art charged with promulgating.

"Signed, Twelfth month 19, 1822.

"CALEB PIERCE,
"LEONARD SNOWDEN,
"JOSEPH SCATTERGOOD,
"S. P. GRIFFITHS,
"T. STEWARDSON,
"EDWARD RANDOLPH,
"ISRAEL MAULE,
"ELLIS YARNALL,
"RICHARD HUMPHRIES,
"THOMAS WISTAR."

To this epistle Elias Hicks made the following reply, two days having intervened:

"TO CALEB PIERCE AND OTHER FRIENDS:

"Having been charged by you with unsoundness of principle and
doctrine, founded on reports spread among the people in an unfriendly
manner, and contrary to the order of our Discipline, by Joseph
Whitall, as charged in the letter from you dated the 19th instant,
and as these charges are not literally true, being founded on his
own forced and improper construction of my words, I deny them, and I
do not consider myself amenable to him, nor to any other, for crimes
laid to my charge as being committed in the course of the sittings
of our last Yearly Meeting, as not any of my fellow-members of that
meeting discovered or noticed any such thing--which I presume to
be the case, as not an individual has mentioned any such things to
me, but contrary thereto. Many of our most valued Friends (who had
heard some of those foul reports first promulgated by a citizen
of our city) acknowledged the great satisfaction they had with my
services and exercise in the course of that meeting, and were fully
convinced that all those reports were false; and this view is fully
confirmed by a certificate granted me by the Monthly and Quarterly
Meetings of which I am a member, in which they expressed their full
unity with me--and which meetings were held a considerable time
after our Yearly Meeting, in the course of which Joseph Whitall has
presumed to charge me with unsoundness of doctrine, contrary to the
sense of the Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings of which I am a
member, and to whom only do I hold myself amenable for all conduct
transacted within their limits. The other charges made against
me by Ezra Comfort, as expressed in your letter, are in general
incorrect, as is proved by the annexed certificate; and, moreover,
as Ezra Comfort has departed from gospel order in not mentioning his
uneasiness to me when present with me, and when I could have appealed
to Friends of that meeting to justify me; therefore, I consider Ezra
Comfort to have acted disorderly and contrary to the discipline, and
these are the reasons which induce me to refuse a compliance with
your requisitions--considering them arbitrary and contrary to the
established order of our Society.

"ELIAS HICKS.

"PHILADELPHIA, Twelfth month 21, 1822."

As already noted the charges in the letter of the ten elders were based on statements made by Joseph Whitall, supplemented by allegations by Ezra Comfort, as to what Elias had said in two sermons, neither of which was delivered within the bounds of Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting. The matters complained of are mostly subject to variable interpretation, and scarcely afford a basis for a religious quarrel, especially considering that the alleged statements were at the best garbled from quite lengthy discourses.

On the same day that Elias replied to the ten elders, three members of Southern Quarterly Meeting issued a signed statement regarding the charges of Ezra Comfort. It is as follows:

"We, the undersigned, being occasionally in the city of Philadelphia,
when a letter was produced and handed us, signed by ten of its
citizens, Elders of the Society of Friends, and directed to Elias
Hicks, after perusing and deliberately considering the charges
therein against him, for holding and propagating doctrines
inconsistent with our religious testimonies, and more especially
those said by Ezra Comfort and Isaiah Bell, to be held forth at a
meeting immediately succeeding the late Southern Quarterly Meeting,
and we being members of the Southern Quarter, and present at the
said meeting, we are free to state, for the satisfaction of the
first-mentioned Friends and all others whom it may concern, that we
apprehend the charges exhibited by the two Friends named are without
substantial foundation; and in order to give a clear view we think
it best and proper here to transcribe the said charges exhibited
and our own understanding of the several, viz., 'That Jesus Christ
was the first man that introduced the Gospel Dispensation, the Jews
being under the outward and ceremonial law or dispensation, it was
necessary there should be some outward miracles, as healing the
outward infirmities of the flesh and raising the outward dead bodies
in order to introduce the gospel dispensation;' this in substance
is correct. 'That he had no more power given him than man,' this
sentence is incorrect; and also, 'That he had nothing to do with
the healing of the soul, for that belongs to God only,' is likewise
incorrect; and the next sentence, 'That Elisha also had the same
power to raise the dead' should be transposed thus to give Elias's
expressions. 'By the same power it was that Elisha raised the dead.'
'That man being obedient to the spirit of God in him could arrive at
as great or greater degree of righteousness than Jesus Christ,' this
is incorrect; 'That Jesus Christ thought it not robbery to be equal
with God,' with annexing the other part of the paragraph mentioned by
the holy apostle would be correct. 'Neither do I think it robbery for
man to be equal with God' is incorrect. 'Then endeavouring to show
that by attending to that stone cut out of the mountain without hands
or the seed in man it would make men equal with God' is incorrect;
the sentence for that stone in man should stand thus: 'That this
stone or seed in man had all the attributes of the divine nature that
was in Christ and God.' This statement and a few necessary remarks
we make without comment, save only that we were then of opinion and
still are that the sentiments and doctrines held forth by our said
friend, Elias Hicks, are agreeable to the opinions and doctrines held
by George Fox and other worthy Friends of his time.

"ROBERT MOORE,
"THOMAS TURNER,
"JOSEPH G. ROWLAND.[121]

"12 mo., 21, 1822."

[121] "Cockburn's Review," p. 73.

First month 4, 1823, the ten elders sent a final communication to Elias Hicks, which we give in full:

"On the perusal of thy letter of the 21st of last month, it was not a
little affecting to observe the same disposition still prevalent that
avoided a select meeting with the elders, which meeting consistently
with the station we are placed in and with the sense of duty
impressive upon us, we were engaged to propose and urge to thee as a
means wherein the cause of uneasiness might have been investigated,
the Friends who exhibited the complaint fully examined, and the whole
business placed in a clear point of view.

"On a subject of such importance the most explicit candour and
ingenuousness, with a readiness to hear and give complete
satisfaction ought ever to be maintained; this the Gospel teaches,
and the nature of the case imperiously demanded it. As to the
certificate which accompanied thy letter, made several weeks after
the circumstances occurred, it is in several respects not only
vague and ambiguous, but in others (though in different terms) it
corroborates the statement at first made. When we take a view of
the whole subject, the doctrines and sentiments which have been
promulgated by thee, though under some caution while in this city,
and the opinions which thou expressed in an interview between Ezra
Comfort and thee, on the 19th ult., we are fully and sorrowfully
confirmed in the conclusion that thou holds and art disseminating
principles very different from those which are held and maintained by
our religious society.

"As thou hast on thy part closed the door against the brotherly
care and endeavours of the elders here for thy benefit, and for
the clearing our religious profession, this matter appears of
such serious magnitude, so interesting to the peace, harmony, and
well-being of society, that we think it ought to claim the weighty
attention of thy Friends at home."[122]

[122] "Cockburn's Review," p. 76. As the signatures are the same as in the previous letter, repeating them seems unnecessary.

One other communication closed the epistolary part of the controversy for the time being. It was a letter issued by twenty-two members of Southern Quarterly Meeting, concerning the ministerial service of Elias Hicks, during the meetings referred to in the charge of Ezra Comfort:

"We, the subscribers, being informed that certain reports have
been circulated by Ezra Comfort and Isaiah Bell that Elias Hicks
had propagated unsound doctrine, at our general meeting on the
day succeeding our quarterly meeting in the 11th month last, and
a certificate signed by Robert Moore, Joseph Turner and Joseph G.
Rowland being read contradicting said reports, the subject has
claimed our weighty and deliberate attention, and it is our united
judgment that the doctrines preached by our said Friend on the day
alluded to were the Truths of the Gospel, and that his labours of
love amongst us at our particular meetings as well as at our said
quarterly meeting were united with by all our members for aught that
appears.

"And we believe that the certificate signed by the three Friends
above named is in substance a correct statement of facts.

"ELISHA DAWSON,
"WILLIAM DOLBY,
"WALTER MIFFLIN,
"DANIEL BOWERS,
"WILLIAM LEVICK,
"ELIAS JANELL,
"JACOB PENNINGTON,
"JONATHAN TWIBOND,
"HENRY SWIGGITT,
"MICHAEL OFFLEY,
"JAMES BROWN,
"GEORGE MESSECK,
"WILLIAM W. MOORE,
"JOHN COGWILL,
"SAMUEL PRICE,
"ROBERT KEMP,
"JOHN TURNER,
"HARTFIELD WRIGHT,
"DAVID WILSON,
"MICHAEL LOWBER,
"JACOB LIVENTON,
"JOHN COWGILL, JUNR.

"LITTLE CREEK, 2 mo. 26th, 1823."

"I hereby certify that I was at the Southern Quarterly Meeting in
the 11th month last, but owing to indisposition I did not attend
the general meeting on the day succeeding, and having been present
at several meetings with Elias Hicks, as well as at the Quarterly
Meeting aforesaid, I can testify my entire unity with the doctrines I
have heard him deliver.

"ANTHONY WHITELY."[123]

[123] "Cockburn's Review," p. 78.

All of these communications, both pro and con, are presented simply for what they are worth. When it comes to determining what is or is not "unsound doctrine," we are simply dealing with personal opinion, and not with matters of absolute fact. This is especially true of a religious body that had never attempted to define or limit its doctrines in a written creed.

The attempt of the Philadelphia elders to deal in a disciplinary way with Elias Hicks on the score of the manner or matter of his preaching was pronounced by his friends a usurpation of authority. It was held that the elders in question had no jurisdiction in the case, in proof of which the following paragraph in the Discipline of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was cited:

"And our advice to all our ministers is that they be frequent in
reading the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; and if any
in the course of their ministry shall misapply or draw unsound
inferences or wrong conclusions from the text, or shall misbehave
themselves in point of conduct or conversation, let them be
admonished in love and tenderness by the elders or overseers where
they live."[124]

[124] Rules of Discipline of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, held in Philadelphia, 1806, p. 62.

It is undoubtedly true that a certain amount of encouragement came to the opponents of Elias Hicks in Philadelphia from some Friends on Long Island, and from three or four residents of Jericho, but they did not at that time at least officially represent any meeting of Friends at Jericho, either real or pretended. This far in the controversy the aggressors were confined to those who at that time were considered the "weight of the meeting," and who at best represented only the so-called "select" meeting and not the Society at large. At the beginning at least the trouble was an affair of the ministers and elders. It later affected the whole Society, by the efforts of the leaders on both sides.

Incidents are not wanting to show that up to the very end of the controversy the rank and file of Friends had little vital interest in the matters involved in the trouble. It is related on good authority that two prominent members of Nine Partners Quarterly Meeting in Dutchess County, New York, husband and wife, made a compact before attending the meeting in Eighth month, 1828, feeling that the issue would reach its climax at that time. They agreed that whichever side retained control of the organization and the meeting-house would be considered by them the meeting, and receive their support. We mention this as undoubtedly representing the feeling in more than one case. The fact that it took practically a decade of excitement and manipulation, to create the antagonisms, personal and otherwise, which resulted in an open rupture, shows how little disposed the majority of Friends were to disrupt the Society.