An Epistle and Testimony from the Yearly Meeting of Friends, held in New-York, by adjournments, from the twenty-sixth of the fifth month, to the second of the sixth month, inclusive, 1828.

New York, Printed by Mahlon Day, 1828.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4°, early plain dark blue wrappers, stitched (loosening). Typographical "mustache" on title page. Light soiling and some creases. In good to very good condition. 24 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION; signed in print at the end by Samuel Parsons and Anne Mott, clerks. The narration begins with a description of the "spirit of unbelief and libertinism, which has long been secretly insinuating itself amongst us." Pages 8-11 are a detailed account of how the "separatists" disrupted the Society's daily business in New York, even changing the locks so orthodox members could not hold committee meetings. Pages 11-22 offer quotes from Elias Hicks and counter-arguments from the writings of William Penn, George Whitehead, and others.In A Doctrinal Epistle Purporting to Be an Exposition of Christian Doctrine, 1824, Elias Hicks, an itinerant Quaker preacher from Long Island, argued that the most important principle of worship (among the Friends and elsewhere) was obedience to the Inner Light, which he considered more authoritative than the Bible. Hicks publicly stated his beliefs at the 1826 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. By 1827, Philadelphia Quakers had split into orthodox and "Hicksites." In the next few years, the annual meetings at New York, Baltimore, Ohio and Indiana also split. The Hicksite faction is (roughly) the confederation of Quakers known today as the Friends General Conference.*** Shoemaker, Checklist of American imprints for 1820-1829, 33294. Jisc repeats British Library and adds Society of Friends.