22nd February 2003, 03:16 PM
I was reading a copy of a March 16, 1746-7 (that is the way it is dated, I don't know why), New York Gazette article, Numb. 217, and thought in light of recent topics on anti-war protests, that it might be of interest to some of you.
From what I can gather, some dozen men were appointed as Commisioners to outfit a fighting force. Apparently, the weapons and food were all unfit for use, and a scandal erupted due to the waste of public money.
I think this article is an op-ed piece in response to something a Mr. Miles wrote. This article defends the Commissioners who wasted the public funds.
I won't quote the entire article, as it is quite long, but I will quote the parts that are most interesting.
I suppose it would help you to know that Quakers are also known as Friends, and object to war or killing of any kind.
I have corrected the text for modern spelling, but the italics are from the article, and are not my emphasis. I have also not altered the punctuation.
The part about the French is right out of a Monty Python skit.
The Commissioners are grossly reflected upon for sending 300 Guns, or Things in the Shape of Guns, which were condemned by the Gunsmiths at Albany, as not of the Value of old Iron: This may be true; but in what are the Commissioners to blame, if Mr. Miles would have considered that those Commissioners were appointed by an Assembly that were of the People called Quakers, and those that were governed by them? Can it be imagined then, than any Commissioner so appointed, would have gone against the Bent and Inclination of his Constituents, as to have purchased such Arms as would have killed the Enemy? No; that would be a Justification of Friends going to War, so contrary to their pacific Principles; besides, the Commissioners knew very well that those very Arms had been in Oliver Cromwell's Army; and they were not so ignorant, or unacquainted with the English History, but that they also knew, that Oliver Cromwell's Arms and Name struck the greatest Terror into the French Nation; therefore if they could purchase such Things as would terrify the French, without killing them, would not the Commissioners have been wrong to have acted otherways, when such Actions must have interfered with their Friends avowed Principles.
From what I can gather, some dozen men were appointed as Commisioners to outfit a fighting force. Apparently, the weapons and food were all unfit for use, and a scandal erupted due to the waste of public money.
I think this article is an op-ed piece in response to something a Mr. Miles wrote. This article defends the Commissioners who wasted the public funds.
I won't quote the entire article, as it is quite long, but I will quote the parts that are most interesting.
I suppose it would help you to know that Quakers are also known as Friends, and object to war or killing of any kind.
I have corrected the text for modern spelling, but the italics are from the article, and are not my emphasis. I have also not altered the punctuation.
The part about the French is right out of a Monty Python skit.
The Commissioners are grossly reflected upon for sending 300 Guns, or Things in the Shape of Guns, which were condemned by the Gunsmiths at Albany, as not of the Value of old Iron: This may be true; but in what are the Commissioners to blame, if Mr. Miles would have considered that those Commissioners were appointed by an Assembly that were of the People called Quakers, and those that were governed by them? Can it be imagined then, than any Commissioner so appointed, would have gone against the Bent and Inclination of his Constituents, as to have purchased such Arms as would have killed the Enemy? No; that would be a Justification of Friends going to War, so contrary to their pacific Principles; besides, the Commissioners knew very well that those very Arms had been in Oliver Cromwell's Army; and they were not so ignorant, or unacquainted with the English History, but that they also knew, that Oliver Cromwell's Arms and Name struck the greatest Terror into the French Nation; therefore if they could purchase such Things as would terrify the French, without killing them, would not the Commissioners have been wrong to have acted otherways, when such Actions must have interfered with their Friends avowed Principles.