Conscientious Objection

Conscientious Objection. Conscientious objection—the principled refusal to bear arms—was brought to England's North American colonies by pacifist Protestant sects, especially Mennonites, Brethren, and the Society of Friends (Quakers), who believed that biblical commandments and Jesus's teachings prohibited them from engaging in war or any violence against other human beings. Since these religious faiths were comparatively small, economically productive, and otherwise law‐abiding, most colonial governments eventually exempted them from bearing arms.

Some objectors were forced into militia service during the Revolutionary War, but several of the new states recognized religious conscientious objection. Indeed, James Madison sought to include protection for religious objectors in the Bill of Rights, but this amendment, after passing in the House of Representatives in 1790, failed in the Senate.

Both North and South adopted national conscription in the Civil War, and some objectors suffered severely, but ultimately both sides recognized the objectors' sincerity and determination. The Abraham Lincoln administration eventually allowed conscripted pacifists to assist wounded soldiers and former slaves.

The Selective Service Act of 1917 recognized only members of the historic peace churches as “conscientious objectors” (COs), the first official use of the term, and required them to serve in the military in nonarmsbearing roles. Some 64,700 men, including many who were not members of the historic peace churches, claimed CO status on religious or political grounds in World War I, and 20,900 COs were inducted into the army. The military treated many harshly, and 450 “absolutists,” who refused any cooperation, went to military prisons.

More liberal, the Selective Service Act of 1940, on the eve of World War II, authorized CO status for all religious objectors and allowed them to choose either nonarms-bearing military service or alternative civilian service. Of the 50,000 COs drafted in 1940–1945, most served in the army's medical corps; 12,000 performed alternative work in Civilian Public Service (CPS), and 5,000 absolutists were imprisoned.

Of the 35,000 COs who performed alternative service between 1951 and 1965, the Cold War's peak, most worked in hospitals or mental institutions, the CPS camps having been abolished. During the Korean War, nearly 1.5 percent of inductees were exempted as COs, compared with .15 percent in each world war.

In the Vietnam War, large numbers of young men, both secular and religious, applied for CO status or simply refused to cooperate with the Selective Service System. These new COs received support from mainline religious bodies as well as antiwar and antidraft groups. The Supreme Court, in the Seeger (1965) and Welsh (1970) decisions, expanded the criteria for CO status to include secular ethical beliefs. More than 170,000 registrants were classified as COs between 1965 and 1970, and CO exemptions soared from 8 percent of actual inductions in 1967 to 43 percent in 1971. Additionally, between 1965 and 1973, 17,500 members of the armed forces applied for noncombatant status or discharge as COs.

Conscription ended in 1973, but even in an all‐volunteer military, conscientious objection remained an issue. In 1990–1991, during the Persian Gulf War, between 1,500 and 2,000 persons in military units applied for discharge as COs. Tensions between the freedom‐of‐conscience principle and America's citizen‐soldier tradition continue to define the evolution of conscientious objection in America.
See also Conscription; Pacifism; Peace Movements.

Bibliography

Lillian Schlissel, ed., Conscience in America: A Documentary History of Conscientious Objection in America, 1757–1967, 1968.
Charles C. Moskos and John Whiteclay Chambers II, eds., The New Conscientious Objection: From Sacred to Secular Resistance, 1993.
James W. Tollefson , The Strength Not to Fight: An Oral History of Conscientious Objectors of the Vietnam War, 1993.

John Whiteclay Chambers II