86 / Growth-and Some Decline-of the Churches

ative years made it easy, almost natural, to unite with other faiths.

There was also the matter of language. The insistence of certain, in fact many, Mennonite leaders on conducting services in the German language meant that a growing number of youth were to be estranged from their parental faith as English, and not German, began to be the language of the new generation. Other factors must have operated also; for example, the challenging emphases of other groups, especially the revivalistic ones, appealed to certain persons whose religious yearnings were not satisfied or met by the more formal and staid traditional Mennonite service of worship and church programs.

The Coming of the Civil War: Test of Christian Brotherhood

The impact of the Civil War on the young Mennonite and Amish communities made a brief but important chapter in their life. Ohio had by this time a number of religious groups with pacifist convictions. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the Dunkers (Church of the Brethren) had flourishing communities in Ohio, especially in the southern part. The Society of Friends was active in presenting its position to the governor and asking for exemption from military services and from hiring substitutes.' The government of Ohio recognized conscientious objection during the Civil War by allowing exemption upon the payment of a $300 commutation fee.

The response of Mennonites and Amish to this provision is not altogether clear, though in Holmes County there are records of their having paid such fees.' In Fairfield County there was strong patriotic feeling and Mennonites suffered some coercion as a result of their position. There was a division apparently as to whether or not to pay $300 for a substitute. Misunderstanding and bitterness arose. There were some young men who enlisted under pressure. Others moved to Allen, Putnam, and Van Wert counties.

In Fulton County the Amish settlement faced the question of military service in a different context.'° There was pressure on them to enlist since they were supposedly active in political elections and served as county trustees. The Civil War, it is thought, alerted this community to a need for more separation from things political, and after the war they achieved it; no longer were Amish names to be found on the lists of county trustees. Nonresistance became stronger as a tenet of faith.