Liberty and Conscience: A Documentary History of the Experiences of Conscientious Objectors in America Through the Civil War

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom, and Chile and the Nazis, and the coauthor of Invisible and
Inaudible in Washington: American Policies To

This is hardly a page-turner that readers will devour in one fell swoop,
but it is solid meat. The introduction explains that much is known about
selective service and conscientious objectors of the 20th century, but
not of earlier ones. Liberty and Conscience fills that gap with the
writings of conscientious objectors and their supporters from the 17th,
18th, and 19th centuries. They protested obligatory service in the
British Navy, the Seven Years’ War, state militias, and the armies of
both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War.

One group that protested through conflict after conflict was the Quaker
movement. Other Christians—German Peace Sects of Pennsylvania,
Moravian Brethen, Mennonites, Adventists, Christadelphians, Disciples of
Christ—did likewise. William Lloyd Garrison is probably the most
famous individual among the objectors. There are also chapters devoted
to protests from the British Caribbean and from Upper Canada.

Despite the many small wars now taking place and on the horizon, the
return of compulsory military service seems unlikely in the foreseeable
future. Even France and the United States prefer professional armies of
volunteers to draftees who will hardly remain in uniform long enough to
learn what might be useful. If that assumption proves false, however,
future conscientious objectors may seek inspiration from these pages. In
any event, historians and peace activists will find them interesting.