Quakers at War

There was an interesting juxtaposition in Franklin’s autobiography between Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania and the war going on in the colonies, and I thought Franklin’s portrayal of the Quakers in this context was fascinating. Although he was clearly respectful of their pacifist beliefs (he made sure the Quakers were exempted from military service when he was organizing the colony’s militia), he takes several opportunities in his autobiography to humorously describe “the Embarrassment given them by their Principle against War” (188).

He shows the Quakers as opposed to the war in principle, but secretively supporting it. Franklin describes a situation that arose in his fire company in which the group was supposed to vote on a matter that would benefit the war effort. Although Quakers were a clear majority in the group – 22 of the 30 members were Quaker – only one showed up to oppose the measure. Of the other 21, 13 showed that they did not oppose the measure by not showing up, and 8 hid themselves in a nearby bar, saying they were in favor of the measure but would only publicly support it if it was absolutely necessary. Through this incident, Franklin uses his characteristic dry sense of humor to conclude that most Quakers were not opposed to other people going to war to defend them, as long as they could pretend to not be involved to save their appearance of principle. Another anecdote that Franklin relates shows the Quakers’ willingness to pay for items of war whenever the government wants them to. The government of New England needed money to buy gun powder, and the Quakers said they could not give money for that purpose because gun powder was an instrument of war. However, they gave a large sum of money to the governor with the stipulation that it be used “for the Purchasing of Bread, Flour, Wheat, or other grain” (189). The governor interprets “other grain” to be gunpowder and proceeds to use all the money given to him by the Quakers to buy the needed gunpowder, and the Quaker donors did not oppose this action at all, because they could still pretend to themselves and other people that they had only funded the purchase of food.

In contrast to the Quakers, who stick doggedly to their principles of nonviolence even while tacitly approving the necessity of it, Franklin later relates a story about the Moravians. They were one of the groups exempted from military service because of their pacifist beliefs, so Franklin is surprised to find the Moravian city of Bethlehem mobilized to fight after another Moravian town is destroyed by the French and Indian forces. When he asks the bishop of Bethlehem about this, he replies that they had thought it was one of their principles, but when the danger of the war came to their doorstep they discovered that few of their people actually believed in it anymore. “Common Sense aided by present Danger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsicall Opinions,” Franklin concludes (232).

Franklin, with his strong belief in utility, clearly thinks that the Quakers beliefs are very impractical in times of war, and thus portrays the ridiculous antics they have to go through in order to seem to stick to their principles while actually supporting the war. While Franklin also portrays the Moravians in a satirical way, it is clear that he approves of their adoption of self-defense in the face of danger.

Size as a Manifestation of Moral Rightness, Societal Indoctrination in Gulliver's Travels

In Gulliver's adventures to Lilliput and Brobdingnag he encounters wholly different sized people, but manages to become prisoner to both. The Lilliputians are diminutive, but manage to use cooperation and tools to tie him down and later chain him up; the Brobdingnagians only need their monstrous size to detain the now tiny Gulliver. Each race finds some utility in Gulliver's "unique" size, and it becomes interesting to see how each race treats Gulliver, given the power struggle inherent in their size differences. The relationship between Gulliver and each race, cast in comparison to his society back home, reveal the relative morality of each race - which we can ultimately see as satire and social commentary on the state of England at the time Swift wrote the novel.

As a captive of the Lilliputians, Gulliver must be careful to earn their trust in order to gain some freedoms in their society. However once he does so, they use him to attack the two factions that threaten their lifestyle. What's more is that Gulliver is forced to sign articles binding him to their servitude. These are laid out in formal language, ensuring a satirical read as each articles reinforces the difference in size between the Lilliputians and Gulliver and if he wanted to, he could easily ignore or refuse any. The relationship established between the Lilliputians and our traveling protagonist is first established as a physical difference, then highlighted as a societal one. Gulliver agrees to help the Lilliputians attack the harbor of Blefuscu in a nonviolent way; however he refuses to crush their society and reduce their people to servitude. It seems that the minuscule, rope-jumping, egg-cracking people of Lilliput are, despite the sometimes hilarious caricature of this size, are a viscously amoral race.

When Gulliver then travels to Brobdingnag and encounters a race of giants, a wholly different tone of morality takes hold of the novel. Once again, this relationship is born from a difference in size. Physically, Gulliver is to the Brobdingnagians as the Lilliputians were to Gulliver - a clever reflection of part 1 on the behalf of Swift. However, the ethical relationship between them is not exactly the inverse. Gulliver's toy-like dimensions make him a curiosity to the people of Brobdingnag, he becomes a sort of side-show attraction (akin to when he brought back miniature farm animals back to England between these two voyages). When Gulliver enters in discussion with the Emperor of Brobdingnag he offers up the modern invention of gunpowder to please him. This outrages the emperor and he questions why the invention would need a place in society. This confuses Gulliver, as he has been accustomed to its "utility" his whole life. Swift casts the Brobdinnagians as a simple people, but decidedly more ethical then the Lilliputians - at least not nearly as barbaric.

What really stands out to me is the idea of indoctrination set forth by Swift in these adventures. It seems that no matter how much time Gulliver spends with a race of foreign people, they can never meet eye-to-eye (physically, politically, or otherwise). Swift gives numerous examples of how this indoctrination almost literally blinds the people to think and act a certain way, and ignore all other possible alternatives. Reading this book is very much an exercise in opening ones eyes to more possibilities and scrutinizing the traditions of society.