[Society of Friends]: [Pemberton, James]:

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AN EPISTLE FROM OUR YEARLY-MEETING, HELD AT PHILADELPHIA, FOR PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW-JERSEY, BY ADJOURNMENTS, FROM THE 24th DAY OF THE 9th MONTH, TO THE 1st OF THE 10th MONTH, INCLUSIVE, 1774; TO OUR ... An important and notably loyalist Quaker epistle from the Philadelphia yearly meeting in 1774. The first part of the letter sets out a brief history of the church up to the Friends' oppression in England and subsequent voyage to "New-Jersey and Pennsylvania [where they] were entrusted with as full enjoyment of religious and civil liberty, as the solemn sanction of the charters granted by the King, could assure to them and their posterity." As a result, the letter urges Friends "to remember, that as under Divine Providence we are indebted to the King and his royal ancestors, for the continued favour of enjoying our religious liberties, we are under deep obligations to manifest our loyalty and fidelity, and that we should discourage every attempt which may be made by any to excite disaffection or disrespect to him, and particularly to manifest our dislike of all such writings as are, or may be published of that tendency." The letter goes on to emphasize that part of that loyalty also means being "careful not to defraud the King of his customs and duties, nor to be concerned in dealing in goods unlawfully imported."American Quakers found themselves in a precarious situation during the Revolutionary period. While it was not uncommon or unexpected for Quakers to take a pacifist stan

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