The earliest known peace society appeared in the United States in August 1815 when the Connecticut born former teacher David Low Dodge joined with a small group of clergy and fellow merchants to form the New York Peace Society. The new society took inspiration from Dodge’s booklet, War Inconsistent with the Religion of Jesus Christ, written in 1812 but released three years later. Dodge and his colleagues believed that war was contrary to the spirit and example of Christ and that it led inevitably to intemperance and barbarism. Similar ideas and organizing efforts emerged independently that year in New England. In 1814 revolutionary war veteran Noah Worcester wrote A Solemn Review of the Custom of War, which blended reason and evangelical Christianity into an argument for organized social action against war, which he condemned as“a heathenish, savage, and barbarous custom.” Worcester emphasized the importance of“human agency” to achieve divine purposes. “God can put an end to war,” he wrote, through “the benevolent exertions of enlightened” humans. Simultaneous efforts were underway in London. A “friends of peace” movement had developed in Britain in the 1790s to oppose William Pitt the Younger’s military intervention against the French Revolution. One of those who conveyed these antiwar sentiments to the prime minister was his close friend William Wilberforce, who later became a hero for his role in ending the slave trade. It was not until after the Napoleonic wars, however, that a formal organization was created. As Martin Ceadel has observed, pacifism in Britain was deeply influenced by the Quaker renunciation of war. Unlike religious sects that separated themselves from society, Quakers were often fully engaged in political action and in commerce and industry. In 1816 William Allen and other Quakers who were active in antislavery and social reform efforts founded the British Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace. The London society was open to all and quickly attracted Anglicans and other non-Quakers to its ranks. Like their US counterparts the British peace advocates believed that war was inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity and contrary to the interests of humankind. The early peace societies spread rapidly. By 1820, according to A. C. F. Beales, there were more than thirty in the United States, with about one-third that number in Britain. The largest of these early groups was the Massachusetts Peace Society, which by 1823 reported some thousand members.
Peace, Activism and Social Change
