Yoder, Anne M.

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Swarthmore College Works Library Staff Works Library & Information Science 6-22-2002 Paper On Quaker Conscientious Objectors Anne M. Yoder Swarthmore College Peace Collection, ayoder1@swarthmore.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/sta-libraries  Part of the Peace and Conflict Studies Commons Recommended Citation Anne M. Yoder. (2002). "Paper On Quaker Conscientious Objectors". Library Staff Works. https://works.swarthmore.edu/sta-libraries/119 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Library Staff Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Paper on Quaker Conscientious ObjectorsAnne M. YoderConference of Quaker Historians & ArchivistsHaverford CollegeJune 22, 2002I'm glad to be here today to highlight some of the wonderful archival material that can befound at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. The Peace Collection is truly aunique collection dedicated to preserving the stories of men, women and children whohave worked for peace, nonviolence and social justice through the years.Last year I asked if I might take a break from processing the mammoth archivalcollections that come to us from modern peace groups, and spend some timeconcentrating on some older collections having to do with conscientious objection. I wasconcerned about their preservation status but also fascinated by the material itself andwanted a chance to dip into it more intensely. It's been a pleasure to use myprofessional knowledge to preserve this material in better form for the future and toprovide better access to it for scholars, but it's also been a source of intense personalinterest, as I myself am a 21st century conscientious objector. The stories of those whohave gone before us are very important in motivating us today to develop and followviable responses to current violence, and I get a great deal of satisfaction out of helpingto save and to relate the historical record of conscientious objection.Of course, the Religious Society of Friends has long been known for its peacestance, and has produced many men and women who have taken it to heart and madepeace their lifestyle and the cornerstone for their convictions against war. I wish I hadtime today to speak in depth about the materials at the Peace Collection that documentQuaker expressions of conscientious objection. But I’m grateful for the chance to sharewhat I can in a forum such as this.The two earliest Quaker COs who are documented in the Peace Collection as faras I know, are Joshua Pollard Blanchard and Alfred Love. Blanchard was born in 1782and worked as a bookkeeper in a bank in Boston. He refused military service during theWar of 1812. His pacifist philosophy was deeply influenced by the Quaker principle ofopposing everything that supported war, and he held this position throughout his life,publishing many articles on his views, especially during the Civil War. Blanchard pastedhis published articles from 1819 through 1868 in an old ledger and this survives. AlfredLove, born in 1830, was a wealthy merchant in Philadelphia, who, when drafted in 1863,refused to serve in the Union army or to pay for a substitute to go in his place. He alsodid not allow his woolen commission business to sell goods in support of the war effort.As a result, his business suffered, and he endured much criticism from those who foundhis absolutist pacifism too uncompromising. He kept journals from 1848 to 1912 andwrote in fascinating detail about his family, friends and community, interspersed with hisobservations about the war and his inner light that convicted him against it. In fact, Ihardly got this paper done because I was so intrigued by his journals so that I spent fartoo much time perusing them this week. He wrote on "[April] 21st, [1861]. Sunday….Went with Ma to good old quaint Green St. Meeting. I have had for three days anintense feeling & a Spirit moving to attend Social worship there this day & I was gratifiedby hearing Henry W. Ridgway on the subject of the day—war! He was very earnestlyconclusive for peace. I felt the full force of the occasion & the deep responsibility restingupon everyone & especially upon the Quaker. Soon after Henry sat down I offered a fewremarks that flowed from me as freely as I felt the flood of light stream into my soul. Iam so clear & firm that one ought not to contend with arms but should carry out… thegreat truths of early Friends. The golden rule seems now forgotten & some of ourFriends waver & some have even joined the army. To these I felt called upon tospeak…. It was a great trial to thus get up in meeting but this is no time to pleaseourselves merely & be afraid."When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917 and instituted a draft, thegovernment had made no provision for men who did not agree to take part in it. COswere sent to army camps where they had to convince army personnel of their "sincerity."The variety of experiences of Quaker COs makes for interesting study. Wray Hoffmanwas sent to Camp Meade in Maryland, where he accepted work in the camp's YMCA asa movie operator; he later went to France & Belgium to work for the Friends BureauOffice of the American Red Cross. He had a very easy time of it compared to suchQuakers as William Marx Kantor and Ulysses De Rosa, both of whom spent time inprison for their absolutist stance in refusing to take orders or to accept noncombatantservice as Hoffman had. At De Rosa's court-martial he stated: "In these trying times theonly authority that I obey is the "Inner-Light—the great ideal for which Christ gave hislife, namely: Humanity. It is the spirit of reconciliation, not hate; non-resistance, notaggression, that should dominate us." He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and sentto Ft. Leavenworth. He noted: “The cells were about 6x7x8 feet high. The bed was awooden board, the size of an ironing board, flush with the floor, with one blanket…" Hewas released in 1919.It wasn't only men who lived by their CO convictions. Dorothy Detzer, MaryKelsey and Mildred Scott Olmsted worked for the AFSC in Russia and Europe afterWorld War I. A. Ruth Fry was a British Quaker who called herself a "dreadful coward"but who found the courage to spend three years in Europe working for refugee relief.Her journals, published reports, maps and photographs are filled with details about herwork and impressions. Mary Stone McDowell was fired from her position in 1918 as aLatin teacher in a Brooklyn school because she refused to sign an unqualified loyaltyoath; it was five years before her position was reinstated. Her papers include letterswritten in 1945 to 1954 to the IRS in which she withheld taxes that would support war.By World War II, the historic peace churches had become much more organized inlobbying for and directing alternative service for COs. Civilian Public Service campswere set up around the U.S., and some of these camps were directed by the Friends,Mennonites, and Brethren Church, and some were run by the government. We have therecords of the AFSC's administration of its CPS camps. These meeting minutes, letters,and case files by the hundreds, help document the relations of the corporate body ofFriends to the government and to other denominations; its work to keep track of themany projects of CPS and administer the camps effectively; and its relationship with theCPSers in their various states of health and satisfaction with their placements. We alsohave the records of the AFSC’s Prison Service Committee that provide importantinformation, not only about the COs in prison, but about the prisons themselves and theconditions therein. We have the personal papers of a lawyer who worked for CO rights,of absolutists who went to prison, of men who went into CPS and were content, and ofthose who were not.Many COs were eager for a chance to show they were not the lily-liveredcowards they were so often accused of being. When more dangerous and challengingjobs became available through CPS, there were many applicants. They trained to besmoke-jumpers to put out forest fires, engaged as human guinea pigs in medicalexperiments, or served in mental hospitals (and women were involved in the latter aswell). Harold Blickenstaff, one of the COs who agreed to be a starvation "guinea pig"wrote on March 16, 1945: "We have now been on our semi-starvation diet for almostfive weeks…. At the start… I weighed 150 pounds. This morning I weighed 137.5pounds…. Only 25 more pounds to go, but when I look at myself it is hard to see wherethey are going to come from." On Sept. 11, 1945, he noted: "We stopped starving July29 (army doctors who had been in Europe who looked us over said we were in verysimilar conditions to the people they found in Belgium and the Netherlands except thatwe had been able to keep clean).”Paul Wilhelm served at the Philadelphia State [Mental] Hospital and wrote in anundated letter: "Darling Wife:… Perhaps you'd rather not hear all the details, but I'd liketo record a couple of my customers while they're plenty fresh…. I've not had a chanceto see Molino's record card, but if I can believe my ears and my imagination, he's thereal character Cagney and Bogart get paid for imitating. [W]hen I've gone in tostraighten out his sheets under him he's "confessed" enough to me to put him in theelectric chair a dozen times—in the "hot shower" as he occassionally [sic.] calls it withterror in his voice…. Tho [sic.] his body is in good shape & he'll probably lay in thoserestraints for years, all his mind is dead except his memory and his conscience. Andthey prey upon him so relentlessly that he can only sleep under heavy dope. The rest ofthe time he lays in there alibi-ing or confessing. In a loud, desperately excited voice, hetries to explain to "Foureyes" that it was the dame that tripped up the scheme, that hehad done his part—"smooth, see"—but the dame—"she went upstairs, see, and Jakeand me had to wait and that gave 'em time." This account, and many others written byCOs, gives us an idea of how their eyes were opened to the realities of a wider worldthrough their war-time experiences. Often, these were a stepping-stone into working forthe betterment of the world in their post-war years. Bayard Rustin was imprisoned for 28months during WWII and then went on to participate in social justice struggles—he tookpart in the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, which earned him time on a North CarolinaChain Gang; he organized the 1963 March on Washington; and he served with suchorganizations as the Congress of Racial Equality and the Fellowship of Reconciliation,to name a few. He is the only African-American Quaker CO for whom we have anypapers that I know of.I ran out of time this week in my research before I could examine the material wehave on COs after World War II. I know of the files of the Friends Committee onNational Legislation and of the Young Friends of North America’s Committee onConscription; of the papers of draft counselor Channing Richardson, and of HoraceChampney who sailed on a peace boat to North Vietnam. I know we have scores ofletters and statements from young men who resisted the draft in the 1960s and 1970s.But I expect that there is a lot of material out there that is still in personal hands. Ourholdings of post-Vietnam material on conscientious objection is particularly small. I hopein the years to come, as post-WWII COs age and start to clean out their attics andbasements, that they too will send us their papers to preserve their stories, and that theorganizations that have worked on their behalf will send us their files. Perhaps in 20years another archivist will have the privilege of sharing with a future gathering such asthis, about the wonderful CO resources to be found in the Peace Collection for the1950s and beyond.I’ve passed out a hand-out that lists the Quaker CO collections that I know of atthis time held by the Peace Collection. This is a shortened version of one on the Webthat has fuller information about the people and organizations, plus some quotes that Iwould have included in this paper if there had been time for them today. There are alsolinks to a list of the CO collections at the Peace Collection; a database of names ofQuaker COs; and my current obsession, a database of names and other informationabout WWI COs. None of these are complete lists, but are attempts to consolidate theinformation found in many different sources. If you have any questions about any ofthese, or about this paper, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Paper On Quaker Conscientious Objectors

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