THE RECORD OF A
QUAKER CONSCIENCE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
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THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
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THE RECORD OF A
QUAKER CONSCIENCE
CYRUS PRINGLE'S DIARY
with an introduction by
RUFUS M. JONES
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1913
By The Atlantic Monthly Company
Copyright, 1918
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and printed. Published, February, 1918
Transcriber's Note:
Several unusual spellings have been kept as in the original, including:northermost ("Fairhope meeting-house is in the northermost country") andcomformable ("yet probably in a manner comformable to").
In some cases, variant spellings of the same word are used, as in thecase of "enrolment" and "enrollment", "therefor" and "therefore", "well meant"and "well-meant". These have been comfirmed with the original.
In referring to God, there is also inconsistency in the use of "His"versus "his" and "Him" versus "him".
INTRODUCTION
The body of this little book consists of the personal diary of a youngQuaker named Cyrus Guernsey Pringle of Charlotte, Vermont. He wasdrafted for service in the Union Army, July 13th, 1863. Under theexisting draft law a person who had religious scruples against engagingin war was given the privilege of paying a commutation fine of threehundred dollars. This commutation money Pringle's conscience would notallow him to pay. A prosperous uncle proposed to pay it surreptitiouslyfor him, but the honest-minded youth discovered the plan and refused toaccept the well meant kindness, since he believed, no doubt rightly,that this money would be used to pay for an army substitute in hisplace. The Diary relates in simple, naïve style the experiences whichbefell the narrator as he followed his hard path of duty, andincidentally it reveals a fine and sensitive type of character, notunlike that which comes so beautifully to light in the Journal of JohnWoolman.
This is plainly not the psychological moment to study the highly complexand delicate problem of conscience. The strain and tension of worldissues disturb our judgment. We cannot if we would turn away from theevents and movements that affect the destiny of nations to dwell calmlyand securely upon our own inner, private actions. It is never easy, evenwhen the world is most normal and peaceful, to mark off with sharp linesthe area of individual freedom. No person ever lives unto himself o