Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Abbreviations......Page 15
Introduction......Page 17
Part I QUAKER CONSTITUTIONALISM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE, c. 1652-1763......Page 39
1 Bureaucratic Libertines: The Origins of Quaker Constitutionalism and Civil Dissent......Page 41
The Origins of the Meeting for Worship......Page 42
Individual Communion......Page 44
The Foundations and Purposes of the Ecclesiastical Polity......Page 46
"Order" and "Method" in the Quaker Society......Page 49
Constituting the Quaker Meeting......Page 56
The Creation of a Written Constitution......Page 59
Quaker Civil Disobedience: Preaching by Example......Page 63
Conclusion......Page 79
2 A Sacred Institution: The Quaker Theory of a Civil Constitution......Page 81
Discernment of Fundamental Law......Page 84
The Civil Constitution and Its Components: The Basis for Political Obligation......Page 88
Political Arrangements......Page 94
A Theory of Constitutional Change......Page 99
Conclusion......Page 114
3 "Dissenters in Our Own Country": Constituting a Quaker Government in Pennsylvania......Page 116
Holy Politics in West Jersey......Page 117
The Pennsylvania Experiment......Page 119
The 1682 Frame of Government......Page 123
The 1683 Frame of Government......Page 126
The Keithian Controversy of 1690-1692 and Its Political Implications......Page 137
The 1696 Frame of Government......Page 142
The 1701 Charter of Privileges......Page 146
Conclusion......Page 150
4 Civil Unity and "Seeds of Dissention" in the Golden Age of Quaker Theocracy......Page 152
Quakers as Political Elders......Page 154
Liberty of Conscience as an Instrument of Proselytization......Page 160
Convincement through Benevolence......Page 164
Legal and Moral Guides toward Quakerism......Page 170
Institutionalized Dissent......Page 176
The Peace Testimony Reinvented......Page 178
Charter Rights......Page 181
Conclusion......Page 192
5 The Fruits of Quaker Dissent: Political Schism and the Rise of John Dickinson......Page 193
Growing Tensions within Political Quakerism......Page 195
The Continuing Dilemma of Pacifism......Page 196
The Political Schism......Page 197
Dissemination of the Quaker Ethic of Dissent and the Rise of the Radicals......Page 200
John Dickinson's Quaker Connections......Page 205
The Campaign for Royal Government......Page 211
Conclusion......Page 218
Part II THE POLITICAL QUAKERISM OF JOHN DICKINSON, 1763-1789......Page 221
6 Turbulent but Pacific: "Dickinsonian Politics" in the American Revolution......Page 223
The Stamp Act Controversy, 1765......Page 224
The Townshend Acts and Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, 1767–1768......Page 227
Withdrawing Quakers and the Townshend Acts......Page 237
The Pivotal Years, 1774-1775......Page 241
Congress among the Quakers......Page 242
Last Resistance to Revolution, 1776......Page 251
Independence......Page 257
Conclusion......Page 261
7 "The Worthy Against the Licentious": The Critical Period in Pennsylvania......Page 263
The 1776 Articles of Confederation......Page 265
The Revolutionary Convention and the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution......Page 269
Protesting the Constitution......Page 271
"Torism is dum": The Constitutional Gap in Pennsylvania and Persecution of Dissenters......Page 277
The Virginia Exiles......Page 281
President of Pennsylvania, 1782-1785......Page 289
The Annapolis Convention of 1786......Page 293
8 "The Political Rock of Our Salvation": The U.S. Constitution According to John Dickinson......Page 295
Constituting the People......Page 297
Discernment of the Fundamental Law......Page 299
Political Unity......Page 305
Constituting a Polity and the Purpose of Government......Page 306
"A More Perfect Union" - Creating the Constitution......Page 311
The Order and Method of the Polity: Popular Sovereignty in a Federal System......Page 315
Conclusion: The Flexible and Perfectible Constitution......Page 326
Epilogue: The Persistence of Quaker Constitutionalism, 1789–1963......Page 328
Quaker Influence beyond the Founding......Page 330
The Transformation of Quaker Political Thought in Antebellum America......Page 336
Traditional Quaker Thought in the Nineteenth Century......Page 341
Quaker Activism in the Twentieth Century......Page 344
Bibliography......Page 351
Index......Page 381