The Address of the People Called Quakers - 3
We acknowledge thy kind Reception of our Application for Copies of the two Papers presented to thee by some of the Frontier Inhabitants on the 6th and 13th Instant which we have perused and considered, and find several Parts thereof are evidently intended to render us odious to our Superiors, and to keep up a tumultuous Spirit among the inconsiderate Part of the People. We therefore request thy favourable Attention, to some Observations which we apprehend necessary to offer, to assert our Innocence of the false Charges and unjust Insinuations thus invidiously propagated against us.
Our religious Society hath been well known thro’ the British Dominions above an Hundred Years, and was never concern’d in promoting or countenancing any Plots or Insurrections against the Government, but on the Contrary, when ambitious Men thirsting for Power have embroiled the State in intestine Commotions and Blood-shed, subverting the Order of Government, our Forefathers, by their public Declarations and peaceable Conduct manifested their Abhorrence of such traitorous Proceedings; and notwithstanding they were often subjected to gross Abuses in their Characters and Persons, and cruel Imprisonments,
