About the same time, Zerah C. Whipple, being called upon to pay a military tax, refused to thus assist in upholding a system which he believed to be anti-Christian and a relic of barbarous ages. He was threatened with imprisonment; but some kindly disposed person, interfering without his knowledge, paid the tax.
In 1872 a petition, signed by members of the Peace Society, was presented to the legislature of Connecticut praying that body to make such changes in the laws of the State as should be necessary to secure the petitioners in the exercise of their conscientious convictions in this regard. The petition was not granted; but the subject excited no little interest and sympathy among some of the legislators.
In the summer of 1874, Zerah C. Whipple, still refusing to do what his conscience forbade, was taken from his home by the tax collector of Ledyard and placed in the New London jail. His arrest produced a profound impression, he being widely known as the principal of the school for teaching the dumb to speak, and also as a very honest, high-souled man.
During his six week’s imprisonment, the young man appealed to the prisoners to reform their modes of life, reproved them for vulgarity and profanity, furnished them books to read, and began teaching English to a Portuguese confined there. The jailer himself said, to the commissioner, that although he regretted Mr. Whipple’s confinement in jail on his own account, he should be sorry to have him leave, as the men had been more quiet and easy to manage since he had been with them. On the evening of the sixth day, an entire stranger called at the jail and desired to know the amount of the tax and costs, which he paid, saying he knew the worth of Mr. Whipple, that his family for generations back had never paid the military tax, and he wished to save the State the disgrace of imprisoning a person guilty of no crime. This man was not a member of the Peace Society. Mr. Whipple afterwards learned that his arrest was illegal, the laws of the State providing that where property is tendered, or can be found, the person shall be unmolested. The authorities of Groton did not compel the payment of this tax by persons conscientiously opposed to it.
In 1872, The Bond of Peace was removed to Quakertown and its name changed to The Voice of Peace. Zerah C. Whipple undertook its publication and continued it until 1874, when it was transferred to a committee of The Universal Peace Union. It is now published in Philadelphia as the official organ of that Society, under the title of The Peacemaker.
The call of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe for a woman’s Peace Society was heartily responded to by the Connecticut Peace Society, and the 2d of June was for years celebrated, by appropriate exercises, as Mother’s Day.
The annual grove meeting increased rapidly in attendance and interest. The number present at the tenth meeting was estimated at 2,500. In 1875, it was decided to prolong the time of the convention to a second day’s session, and the two day’s session was attended with unabated interest.
Jonathan Whipple, first president of the Connecticut Peace Society, died in March, 1875. Shortly before the end, he was heard to say: “Blessed are the peacemakers; but there has been no blessing promised to warriors.”
The grove meeting is now held three days annually. It is the largest gathering of the kind in the world. The large tent used at first was replaced some years since by a commodious wooden structure, which is the property of the Universal Peace Union.
From the first, some of the most noted speakers on peace and kindred topics have occupied the platform, among them Belva Lockwood, Mary A. Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, Aaron M. Powell, Rowland B. Howard, Robert T. Paine, Delia S. Parnell, George T. Angell, H. L. Hastings, William Lloyd Garrison, etc. The Hutchinson family used frequently to sing at these meetings. The only one now remaining of that gifted choir, a gentleman as venerably beautiful as any bard of ancient times, has, in recent summers, favored the audience in the grove with several sweet songs appropriate to the occasion.