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The American Peace Society is a
pacifist group founded upon the initiative of
William Ladd
William Ladd (May 10, 1778 – April 9, 1841) was one of the earliest United States, American anti-war activists, and the first president of the American Peace Society.
Biography
Ladd was born in Exeter, New Hampshire as a direct lineal descenda ...
, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, 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 The New York Peace Society was the first peace society to be established in the United States. It has had several different incarnations, as it has merged into other organizations or dissolved and then been re-created.
First incarnation (1815–18 ...
, 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
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may i ...
; it did not oppose the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
,
regarding the
Union's war as a "police action" against the "criminals" of
the
Confederacy.
Its most famous leader was
Benjamin Franklin Trueblood
Benjamin Franklin Trueblood (1847–1916) was an American pacifist who served the American Peace Society for 23 years. In this role, he functioned as the official public spokesperson and representative of the Society. He served as editor of the S ...
(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
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...
, in 1834 to
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1911 to Washington, D.C. The group is now based in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. Its official journal is ''
World Affairs
''World Affairs'' is an American quarterly journal covering international relations. At one time, it was an official publication of the American Peace Society. The magazine has been published since 1837 and was re-launched in January 2008 as a new ...
''.
The
American Peace Society house
The American Peace Society House, also known as the Glover House, is a historic house at 734 Jackson Place NW, facing Lafayette Square in the heart of Washington, D.C. Built in 1878 for banker and philanthropist Charles Carroll Glover, it is mos ...
, its headquarters from 1911 to 1948 near the
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
, is a U.S.
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.
The American Peace Society was opposed to
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
.
History
In 1833, their office was listed as 129 Nassau Street in New York City, NY. As of 1834 the society operated from headquarters on
Wall Street in New York City. In Boston it worked from offices on
Cornhill (ca.1840s–1850s); Chauncey Street (ca.1864);
Winter Street (ca.1868–1869); and Somerset Street (ca.1870s–1890s). Annual meetings took place in various venues in Boston, including
Park Street Church
Park Street Church, founded in 1804, is a historic and active evangelical congregational megachurch in Downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The Park Street Church is a member of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. Typical attendance a ...
(1851). Officers included
George C. Beckwith,
William Jay, Howard Malcom, John Field, William C. Brown.
[Boston Directory. 1869]
Notable people
*
Ruth Hinshaw Spray
Ruth Hinshaw Spray (February 16, 1848 – February 26, 1929) was an American peace activist. Spray was prominent as a teacher in the public schools and work for the protection of children and animals. She was also active in the work of child labo ...
(1848–1929), served as vice-president for 16 years
See also
*
Pacifism in the United States Pacifism has manifested in the United States in a variety of forms (such as peace movements), and in myriad contexts (such as opposition to the Civil War and to nuclear weapons). In general, it exists in contrast to an acceptance of the necessity ...
*
List of anti-war organizations
In order to facilitate organized, determined, and principled opposition to the wars, people have often founded anti-war organizations. These groups range from temporary coalitions which address one war or pending war, to more permanent structured ...
*
List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work ...
*
Massachusetts Peace Society The Massachusetts Peace Society (1815–1828) was an anti-war organization in Boston, Massachusetts, established to "diffuse light on the subject of war, and to cultivate the principles and spirit of peace." Founding officers included Thomas Dawes, ...
(1815–1828), one of the predecessors to the American Peace Society
*
White House Peace Vigil
The White House Peace Vigil is an anti-nuclear weapons peace vigil started by William Thomas in 1981. Thomas believed it to be the longest running uninterrupted anti-war protest in U.S. history.
After Thomas's death in 2009, it was maintained ...
Footnotes
*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 serie
v.7-9(1876–1878). Published in Washington, DC
v.84(1922). Also called ''Advocate of Peace Through Justice''
*
via HathiTrust als
herean
here* 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
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...
. The war system of the commonwealth of nations: an address before the American Peace Society, at its anniversary in Boston, May 28, 1849. 1854
Internet Archive* 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). Children's magazine.
About the society
* The Calumet
v.2(1834–1835)
*
James Libby 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)
*
External links
American Peace SocietyWebsite
housed at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection
Library of Congress Photo of Philip Marshall Brown of the American Peace Society, Washington, D.C., May 1, 1939. Harris & Ewing, photographer
{{Authority control
Peace organizations based in the United States
1828 establishments in New York (state)
19th century in Boston
Organizations based in Boston
Organizations based in Washington, D.C.
Anti-Zionist organizations