American Peace Society

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The American Peace Society (APS) was formed in 1828 out of the Massachusetts Peace Society (1815) and other local and state groups. Its principal organizers, William Ladd (1778–1841) and George Beckwith (1800–1870), recruited members, edited its journal—The Advocate of Peace—and publicized Ladd's idea of a league of nations with an international court of arbitration. The society embraced peace advocates of every persuasion, although in the 1840s it found the attraction of absolute pacifism very strong. It opposed the Mexican War of 1846–48, but endorsed the Civil War.

In the last quarter of the century, the APS returned to an international campaign for arbitration treaties. A coalition with other peace societies was shattered by World War I (which the society endorsed), and by the postwar debate over the League of Nations (which the society rejected insofar as it was designed to enforce peace).

The APS never resumed a vigorous advocacy role. In 1932 its journal, now factually oriented, was renamed World Affairs. After a flurry of activity during the 1940s on behalf of a United Nations, the society limited its activity to publication.

[See also Peace; Peace and Antiwar Movements.]

Bibliography

  • Edson L. Whitney, The American Peace Society: A Centennial History, 1928.
  • Merle E. Curti, The American Peace Crusade: 1815–1860, 1929
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A pacifist group founded in 1828 that was the first nationally based secular peace organization in American history. Based in Boston, the society organized peace conferences and published a periodical entitled Advocate of Peace. Its most famous leader was Benjamin Franklin Trueblood (1847-1916), a Quaker who in his book The Federation of the World (1899) called for the establishment of an international state to bring about lasting peace in the world. The group is now based in Washington, D.C.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

American Peace Society

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The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd, in New York City, May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of which the oldest, the New York Peace Society, dated from 1815. Ladd was an advocate of a "Congress and High Court of Nations." The society organized peace conferences and regularly published a periodical entitled Advocate of Peace. The Society was only opposed to wars between nation states; it did not oppose the American Civil War, regarding the Union's war as a "police action" against the "criminals" of the Confederacy. [1] [2] Its most famous leader was Benjamin Franklin Trueblood (1847–1916), a Quaker who in his book The Federation of the World (1899) called for the establishment of an international state to bring about lasting peace in the world. In 1834 the headquarters of the society were removed to Hartford, in 1834 to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1911 to Washington, D.C.[3] The group is now based in Washington. Its official journal is World Affairs.

Portrait of Arthur Deerin Call[4] of the American Peace Society, 1913

The American Peace Society house, its headquarters from 1911 to 1948 near the White House, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The American Peace Society was opposed to Zionism[5].

Contents

History

In Boston the society worked from offices on Cornhill (ca.1840s-1850s);[6][7] Chauncey Street (ca.1864);[8] Winter Street (ca.1868-1869)[9]; and Somerset Street (ca.1870s-1890s).[10] Annual meetings took place in various venues around town, including Park Street Church (1851).[11] Officers included George C. Beckwith, William Jay, Howard Malcom, John Field, William C. Brown.[12][13]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Peter Brock, Pacifism in the United States: from the colonial era to the First World War. Princeton University Press, 1968 (p. 691).
  2. ^ Valarie H. Ziegler,The advocates of peace in antebellum America Mercer University Press, 2001 ISBN 0865547262 (p.158).
  3. ^ New International Encyclopedia
  4. ^ http://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n90-674340
  5. ^ "Zionism is a Backward Step". Advocate of Peace. Vol. LXIX, No. 1. January, 1907. Page 32
  6. ^ Boston Directory. 1848, 1861
  7. ^ Boston almanac. 1852
  8. ^ Boston Directory. 1864
  9. ^ Boston Directory. 1868, 1869
  10. ^ Boston almanac. 1894
  11. ^ Rufus W. Clark. An address delivered before the American Peace Society at its annual meeting, May 26, 1851. Google books
  12. ^ Massachusetts State Record and Year Book. 1850
  13. ^ Boston Directory. 1869
  • Oxford Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Oxford University Press, 2001
  • Dictionary of American History by James Truslow Adams, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940

Further reading

Issued by the society

  • Advocate of Peace. Published in Hartford: v.1-2 (1834–1836). Published in Boston: v.3-4 (1839–1842); v.11 (1854). New series v.7-9 (1876–1878). Published in Washington, DC: v.84 (1922). Also called Advocate of Peace Through Justice
  • Thomas Hancock. The principles of peace: exemplified in the conduct of the Society of Friends in Ireland, during the rebellion of the year 1798, with some preliminary and concluding observations. 1843
  • Walter Channing. Thoughts on peace and war: An address delivered before the American Peace Society at its annual meeting, May 27, 1844.
  • The Book of Peace. Boston: George Beckwith, 1845.
  • William Jay. An address delivered before the American Peace Society at its annual meeting, May 26, 1845.
  • Charles Sumner. The war system of the commonwealth of nations: an address before the American Peace Society, at its anniversary in Boston, May 28, 1849. 1854. Google books
  • Rufus W. Clark. An address delivered before the American Peace Society at its annual meeting, May 26, 1851.
  • Angel of Peace. v.5-8 (1876–1878). Childrens' magazine.

About the society

  • The Calumet. v.2 (1834–1835)
  • James L. Tryon. The Rise of the Peace Movement. Yale Law Journal, Vol. 20, No. 5 (Mar., 1911), pp. 358–371
  • The American Peace Society: A Centennial History by Edson L. Whitney (1928)
  • Buescher, John Benedict (2005). "American Peace Society". In Karsten, Peter. Encyclopedia of War and American Society. 1 (1st ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 36–38. ISBN 0-7619-3097-3. 

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David Low Dodge (American businessman & politician)
John Jacob Esch (American statesman & politician)
William Jay (American jurist & politician)
William Ladd (American politician)