- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1961 : July]
-
-
- Date
- July 1961
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
North Carolina historical review [1961 : July]
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The North Carolina
Historical Review
Volume XXXVIII July, 1961
Number 3
NORTH CAROLINA FRIENDS AND THE REVOLUTION
By Dorothy Gilbert Thorne*
When North Carolina Yearly Meeting convened in Tenth
month, 1775, it seemed “Good and Necessary at this time of
General Distress and Unatural Commotions” to remind
Friends of “their antient and Honourable Testimony and
Principle of Friends in Respect to the King and Government.”
This they did in an epistle prepared and accepted and direc¬
ted to all meetings belonging to the Yearly Meeting.*1*III,
We Sincerely declare that it hath been our Judgement and
Principle from the first to this day, that the Setting up and
Putting down Kings and Government is God's Peculiar Preroga¬
tive for Causes best Known to him self and that it is not our work
and Business to have any hand or Contrivance therein nor to be
Bussie Bodies in Matters above our Station much less to Contrive
the Ruin or Overturn of any of them ; but to Pray for the King
and for the safety of our Nation, and good of all men that we
may live a Peacable and Quiet Life in all Godliness and Honesty
under the Government which God is Pleased to set over us and
to yield a Chearfull and active obedience to all Good and whole¬
some Laws, and a Passive and Peacable Submission to all such
laws as do Interfere with our Consciences by Suffering under
* Mrs. Dorothy Gilbert Thorne was formerly Professor of English at Guil¬
ford College and now resides in Wilmington, Ohio.
*At this time North Carolina Yearly Meeting consisted of two Quarterly
Meetings, Eastern and Western, eight Monthly Meetings in North Carolina,
two in South Carolina, and one in Georgia. Unless otherwise indicated this
article is based on the following volumes of manuscript minutes of the
Yearly Meeting, Volume I, 1704-1793; Western Quarterly Meeting, Volume
I, 1760-1900; Minutes of the Standing Committee of Eastern Quarter, Vol¬
ume I, 1754-1823; and on records of the six North Carolina Monthly Meet¬
ings, minutes of two meetings not being extant. Volumes used are in the
vault at Guilford College and consist of the following: Perquimans, Volume
III, 1776-1794; Pasquotank, Volume I, 1699-1785, Core Sound, Volume I,
1733-1791 (belonging to the Eastern Quarter) ; Cane Creek, Volume I,
1751-1796; New Garden, Volume II, 1775-1782; and Deep River, Volume I,
1778-1807 (belonging to the Western Quarter). References to minutes are
identified by dates in the text.
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