Editing Quaker Philadelphia (section)

== Political Dominance ==

Quakers controlled Pennsylvania's colonial government for its first seventy years, dominating the Provincial Assembly and holding most important offices. This political dominance reflected both demographics—Quakers were a majority of the early settler population—and the provisions of Penn's Frame of Government, which gave Friends disproportionate representation. Quaker political power was exercised with distinctive features: assemblies opened with periods of silent worship, and decisions were reached through consensus rather than majority vote when possible. The Quaker commitment to pacifism shaped colonial defense policy, creating persistent tensions as frontier settlers demanded military protection that Quaker legislators were reluctant to provide.<ref name="tully">{{cite book |last=Tully |first=Alan |title=William Penn's Legacy: Politics and Social Structure in Provincial Pennsylvania, 1726-1755 |year=1977 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore}}</ref>

Quaker political dominance ended gradually during the mid-18th century. The increasing diversity of Pennsylvania's population diluted Quaker electoral majorities, while the French and Indian War (1754-1763) created irresistible pressure for military measures that Friends could not support in good conscience. In 1756, facing demands to fund military operations against Native Americans, six Quaker assemblymen resigned rather than vote for war measures, beginning the withdrawal of Friends from direct political power. By the time of the American Revolution, Quakers were a minority in Pennsylvania politics, though they remained influential in commerce, philanthropy, and reform movements. Many Friends refused to participate in the Revolution, their pacifism making them suspect to patriots who viewed neutrality as disloyalty.<ref name="marietta">{{cite book |last=Marietta |first=Jack D. |title=The Reformation of American Quakerism, 1748-1783 |year=1984 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>