In 1778, the Continental Congress passed a law requiring citizens to pledge their allegiance

to the state in which they lived, as opposed to the competing British crown, which put Quakers in a pickle.

Swearing oaths ran afoul of Quaker beliefs.

Christ said in the book of Matthew,

do not take an oath at all, either by heaven for it is the throne of God or by earth,

for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem.

Quakers didn't see much wiggle room there.

Didn't look to them like they could pick and choose which oaths to make.

Some Quakers crossed that line.

They pledged allegiance in the struggle and assisted the war effort, for which many

were excommunicated from their congregations around an estimated

1700 Quakers were cut off from their religion, their community, their way of life

over the course of the war. High stakes stuff. Most Quakers refused to comply. high stakes the Revolutionary War itself.

If oaths had been the extent of Quaker intransigence, the Continental Congress could probably have worked

around them.

We won't call it an oath or a pledge, okay, we'll call it an official agreement or a verbal contract or something.

But Quaker religion, which they had explicitly settled in the American colonies to practice

unmolested, was adamantly pacifistic.

Those who live by the sword die by the sword.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Turn the other cheek.

All that good stuff from the good book.

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