That Quaker influence was far stronger in America than it ever proved to be in England.George Fox himself visited the colonies and extended its influence.Three great effects are easily traceable.The very presence of the Quakers in the New England colonies, notably in Massachusetts, and the persecutions which they endured, did more to purify the Puritans than any other one influence.One is only loyal to the Puritan character and teaching in declaring that in the manner of the Puritans toward the Quakers they were wrong; they were wrong because they were untrue to their own belief, untrue to their own Bibles, and when the more thoughtful among them found that they were taking the attitude toward the Quakers which they had resented toward themselves, remembering that the Quakers were drawing their teaching from the same Bible as themselves, they were naturally checked.And, while the Quakers in New England suffered greatly, their suffering proved the purification ofthe Puritans.It accented and so it removed the narrowness of Puritan practice.Further, the Quaker movement gave to American history William Penn and the whole constitution of Pennsylvania.It was there that a state first lived by the principle which William Penn pronounced: "Any government is free where the people are a party to the laws enacted." So it came about that Independence Hall is on Quaker soil.The Declaration of Independence appeared there, and not on Puritan soil.It may be there was more freedom of thought in Pennsylvania.It may be explained on purely geographical ground, Philadelphia being the most convenient center for the colonies.But it remains significant that not on Cavalier soil in Virginia, not on Dutch soil in New York, not on Puritan soil in Boston, but on Quaker soil in Philadelphia the movement for national independence crystallized around a general principle that "any government is free where the people are a party to the laws enacted," but that no government is free whose people have not a voice.That is not minimizing the power of Puritanism, nor forgetting Fanueil Hall and the Tea Party.It only accents what should be familiar: that Puritanism drew into itself more of the fighting element of Scripture, while the Quaker movement drew into itself more of the uniting, pacifying element of Scripture.The third effect of the Quaker movement is John Greenleaf Whittier, with his gentle but never weak demand that national freedom should not mean independence of other people alone, but the independence of all people within the nation.So that while the Quaker spirit helped the colonies to break loose from foreign control and become a nation, it helped the nation in turn to break loose from internal shackles.The nation stood free within itself as well as free from others.Yet the Quaker movement--and this is the argument--is itself the result of the English Bible, and the Quaker influence is the influence of the English Bible on history.There is not need for extended word about the great Wesleyan movement in the midst of this period, which has so profoundly affected both English and American history.It has not worked out into such visible political forms.But any movement that makes for larger spiritual life makes for the strengthening of the entire life of the nation.The mere figures of the early Wesleyan movement are almost appalling.Here was a man, John Wesley, an Oxford scholar, whospent nearly fifty years traveling up and down and back and forth through England on horseback, covering more than two hundred and fifty thousand miles, preaching everywhere more than forty thousand times, writing, translating, editing two hundred works.When death ended his busy life there were in his newly formed brotherhood one hundred and thirty-five thousand members, with five hundred and fifty itinerants who were following his example with incessant preaching and Bible exposition.It was the old Wiclif-Lollard movement over again.And here was the other Wesley, Charles, teaching England to sing again, teaching the old truths of the Bible in rhyme to many who could not read, so that they became familiar, writing on horseback, in stage-coaches, everywhere, writing with one passion, to help England back to the Bible and its truth.Such activity could not leave the nation unmoved; all its religious life felt it, and its political life from serf to king was deeply affected by it.It is a common saying that the Wesleyan movement saved English liberty from European entanglement.Yet the Wesleyan movement issued from the Bible and led England back to the Bible.
But apart from these wide movements and the great souls who led them, there is time for thought of one typical character on each side of the sea who did not so much make a movement as he proved the point around which a great fluid idea crystallized into strength.Across the sea the character shall be that man whom Carlyle gave back to us out of obloquy and misunderstanding, Oliver Cromwell.Choosing him, we pass other names which crowd into memory, names of men who have served the need of England well-Wilberforce, John Howard, Shaftesbury, Gladstone-- who drew their strength from this Book.Yet we choose Cromwell now for argument.On this side it must be that best known, most beloved, most typical of all Americans, Abraham Lincoln.
