New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-08-21
CONACKlPT QUAkERS.

II ever there was man in the world who
" amidstth cangor Of resounding arms" had lit
lie temptation to take up the sword upon either
side. it was George Fox. Both parties had be-
slowed their attentions upon him with rigid i'm
partially. The registering Royaist Squire and
he praying Puritan Colonel, while they agreed
in nothing else, agreed in sending George Fox
to jail. II he did not fight, except with his
tongue, which was a tremendous weapon, It
was not, as he demonstrated many times, from
any lack Of personal courage; for the founder OF
Quakersm was as bold lion, and would
have walked into the lions den, if had felt a
call to DO so, with unfaltering feet. He had,
too, a good deal of natural pugnacity, as all
men Of great original natures have had; and
the persistency which distinguished him in the
testimony against the hat" might have been
developed into most truculent and formidable
trooper. With much prayer, and in agony OF
soul, he determined to fight against fighting
and to the end of life full of strange and ro-
mantle yicsstudes by land and by sea, he re-
manned true 10 the VOW which, before God, he
had recorded Many men who had proved their
yalor upon hard fought fields, came peacefully
To his feet, received his instruction, and en-
braced his faith. Old Barclay, known
as bold soldier all over Europe put
of his dnted armor, and put on the garb Of
4 dcspSed aud harrassed and unresisting people.
Those days have long since gone by. The
Quakers of this middle of the Nineteenth Cen
fury cannot, if they wish, be formed after the
pattern Of those who testified in the middle of
the Seventeenth. 1t was easy to convince a
man that he should be Studiously plain III his
dress at time when spendthrift courtiers
carried their fortunes upon their backs; but it
is hard now to convince a sensible person that
there is any religious preference TO be given 70
any particular shape OF a coat. Undoubtedly, a
Quaker hat is more picturesque in the sight Of
an artist, and better sets of fine countenance,
than the stoye-pipe pattern, which it is the
fashion to wear; but if man peascs to wear
the stoye-pipe, most certainly there is nothing
against it in the Scriptures. "Thec and thou"
are more dramatically correct than 'you,"
which Is a solecsm sanctioned by usage; but if
a man prefers to say "you." he may say SO
without rcproach. Nobody shows any respect
for Janus by saying January, or for Wooden by
writing Wednesday. In these things each one
to his taste
But these are trifing matters. We notice
that two young men, Members of the Society Of
Friends in Pennsylvania, having been drafted,
have been forced into the conscript ranks, have
been taken to the barracks, and are to be mus
tered into service. In the spirit of ancient
Quakerism they avow that they will not fight.
The Government says that they shall. OF
course, after the very first action TO which they
are exposed, if they are not killed, it will be
necessary, for consistency's sake, to hang them
for cOwardice or to shoot them for insubordina-
ton. This is Il serious business. War makes
wild work with political and personal rights, as
it does also with the rights of private Judgment.
If we will go back to state of nature, oil cul-
turc, and especially religious culture, begins to
grow obsolete and impertnent. Hobbies and
George Fox had very little in common.
But while We respect the motives OF these
conscientious conscripts, and arc glad to find
that in these days all faith in abstract truth has
not departed, We think when two wealthy