The doctrine of Christianity, as held by the people called Quakers, vindicated : in answer to Gilbert Tennent's sermon on the lawfulness of war.

£12,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The very rare first edition of an influential text in the Pennsylvania Quaker debates surrounding the proposed formation of the colony’s first armed militia. This pamphlet’s publisher, Benjamin Franklin, was the founder of the militia (known as the Association) and had a vested interest in the debate surrounding it. John Smith here provides a refutation of Gilbert Tennent’s theological argument for a defensive war. One thousand copies of this first edition were printed in January of 1748. It is significantly rarer than the second edition which came out the following month. Furthermore this copy comes with excellent contemporary provenance - the 1769 ownership inscription of Hugh Roberts, Franklin’s Philadelphia contemporary and close friend. Prior to the 1740s Pennsylvania had been uniquely sheltered from invasion and harassment by its location inland, and its historically peaceful relations with the surrounding indigenous people of the Lenape Nation. As King George’s War raged on coastal colonies and at the frontiers between British and French territories, the conflict finally reached Pennsylvania in 1747, as privateers made their way up the Delaware River and attacked ships and settlements along the way. Preceding these attacks, the Quaker legislature had already debated and dismissed the idea of a military force to defend the colony. “A political entity whose legislative body was dominated by pacifists, Pennsylvania’s situation was unparalleled in the mainland American col

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