Soldiers of peace : Civil War pacifism and the postwar radical peace movement / Thomas F. Curran.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Curran, Thomas F.

Series:

North's Civil War ; no. 22.

The North's Civil War series, 1089-8719 ; no. 22

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Perfection.

History.

War--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Pacifists.

Peace movements.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Protest movements.

United States.

Protest movements.

Peace movements--United States--History--19th century.

Pacifists--United States--History--19th century.

Christians--Political activity--United States--History--19th century.

Christians.

Christians--Political activity.

War--Religious aspects--Christianity--History--19th century.

War.

Perfection--Political aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Perfection--Religious aspects--Christianity.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Religious aspects.

Physical Description:

xv, 228 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2003.

Summary:

Historians have tended to dismiss the significance of pacifism and the organized peace movement during the Civil War era, arguing that most Americans believed in the War as an answer to the crisis of secession. This groundbreaking book offers a much-needed new perspective on the role played by pacifism during and after the Civil War. Thomas Curran focuses on the "perfectionist pacifists," a group of northerners whose views on Christian perfection and rigorous obligation to Christian teachings forced them to take an extreme pacifist stance during the War.

Curran examines the deep tensions between religious belief and the demands of civil government created by the Civil War draft, the first national conscription in American history. In the pages of William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator and through other vehicles, perfectionists voiced their belief that the draft exemplified all that was wrong with the fabric of American government. Their deeply held belief in the doctrine of nonresistance compelled these pacifists to protest compulsory military service as state-sanctioned coercion, even in a just or popular cause.

Curran tracks pacifist wartime opposition into the postwar years, when the perfectionists united to create the Universal Peace Union (UPU), America's most radical peace organization of the late nineteenth century. Convinced by the War that the world had moved far from the blueprint they believed God had ordained, the perfectionists went on the offensive, striving to abolish war for good and to confront the shortcomings of government and society. Like other similar movements, the UPU agitated for disarmament, an international court, and arbitration for all international disputes. It also sought to remove from the U.S. Constitution all provisions related to the military and war. The UPU also became involved in a range of social and political causes, including Reconstruction, Native American rights, labor relations, and women's rights. Through the UPU the perfectionists sought to reform all aspects of society to their understanding of the laws of God -- a continuation of the optimistic perfectionism found in the reform movements of the antebellum era, in a new struggle to create the conditions they believed existed in God's millennial kingdom on earth.

Although it grew to become the most radical peace organization of its era and experienced successes during its 47 years of operation, the UPU ultimately failed to achieve its idealistic agenda. In Curran's fresh, insightful account, this story shines light on the limitations, often self-imposed, that many reform groups face in achieving their goals.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Perfectionist Pacifism 1

Chapter 2 Making Millenniums: Roots of Perfectionist Pacifism 23

Chapter 3 Perfectionism and the Obligations of Citizenship 50

Chapter 4 The Perils of Perfectionism 77

Chapter 5 The Perfectionists Organize 106

Chapter 6 Realizing the "Universal Republic" 134

Chapter 7 The "Sum of All Virtues" 158

Chapter 8 The Limits of Perfection 194.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [205]-221) and index.

ISBN:

0823222101

OCLC:

51613838