It was observed in South-Carolina, that several gentlemen who had protected their estates by swearing allegiance to the British government, died soon after the evacuation of Charleston by the British army. Their deaths were ascribed to the neglect with which they were treated by their ancient friends, who had adhered to the government of the United States. The disease was called, by the common people, the protection fever.
From the causes which produced this hypochondriasis, I have taken the liberty of distinguishing it by the name of revolutiana.
In some cases, this disease was rendered fatal by exile and confinement; and, in others, by those persons who were afflicted with it, seeking relief from spiritous liquors.
The termination of the war by the peace in 1783, did not terminate the American revolution. The minds of the citizens of the United States were wholly unprepared for their new situation. The excess of the passion for liberty, inflamed by the successful issue of the war, produced, in many people, opinions and conduct which could not be removed by reason nor restrained by government. For a while, they threatened to render abortive the goodness of heaven to the United States, in delivering them from the evils of slavery and war. The extensive influence which these opinions had upon the understandings, passions, and morals of many of the citizens of the United States, constituted a form of insanity, which I shall take the liberty of distinguishing by the name of anarchia.
I hope no offence will be given by the freedom of any of these remarks. An inquirer after philosophical truth should consider the passions of men in the same light that he does the laws of matter or motion. The friends and enemies of the American revolution must have been more, or less than men, if they could have sustained the magnitude and rapidity of the events that characterised it, without discovering some marks of human weakness, both in body and mind. Perhaps these weaknesses were permitted, that human nature might receive fresh honours in America, by the contending parties (whether produced by the controversies about independence or the national government) mutually forgiving each other, and uniting in plans of general order, and happiness.
Footnotes:
[54] Wheat, which was sold before the war for seven shillings and sixpence, was sold for several years during the war for four, and in some places for two and sixpence Pennsylvania currency per bushel. Beggars of every description disappeared in the year 1776, and were seldom seen till near the close of the war.
[55] Insania partialis sine dyspepsia, of Doctor Cullen.