[Footnote 12: Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. II. p. 229.]
In 1776, when General Howe arrived upon the shores of the same province, a crowd of inhabitants manifested their joy, renewed the oath of fidelity to the crown, and took up arms in its behalf. [Footnote 13] The feeling was the same in New Jersey, and the Loyalist corps, levied in these two provinces, equalled in numbers the contingents furnished by them to the republican armies.[Footnote 14] In the midst of this population, Washington himself was not in safety; a conspiracy was formed to deliver him up to the English, and some members of his own guard were found to be engaged in it. [Footnote 15]
[Footnote 13: Ibid., Vol. II. p. 381.]
[Footnote 14: Ibid., Vol. III. p. 47. Spark's Life of Washington, Vol. I. p 261.]
[Footnote 15: Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. II. p. 364.]
Maryland and Georgia were divided. In North and South Carolina, in 1776 and 1779, two Loyalist regiments, one of fifteen hundred, and the other of seven hundred men, were formed in a few days. Against these domestic hostilities, Congress and the local governments used, at first, extreme moderation; rallying the friends of independence without troubling themselves with its opponents; demanding nothing from those who would have refused; everywhere exerting themselves by means of writings, correspondence, associations, and the sending of commissioners into the doubtful counties, to confirm their minds, to remove their scruples, and to demonstrate to them the justice of their cause, and the necessity there was for the steps they had taken. For, generally, the Loyalist party was founded upon sincere and honorable sentiments; fidelity, affection, gratitude, respect for tradition, and a love of established order; and from such sentiments it derived its strength. For some time the government contented itself with watching over this party and keeping it under restraint; in some districts, they even entered into treaty with it, to secure its neutrality. But the course of events, the imminence of the danger, the urgent need of assistance, and the irritation of the passions, soon led to a more rigorous course. Arrests and banishment became frequent. The prisons were filled. Confiscations of property commenced. Local committees of public safety disposed of the liberty of their fellow-citizens, on the evidence of general notoriety. Popular violence, in more than one instance, was added to the arbitrary severities of the magistrates. A printer in New York was devoted to the cause of the Loyalists; a troop of horsemen, who had come from Connecticut for that purpose, broke his presses and carried off his types. [Footnote 16] The spirit of hatred and vengeance was awakened. In Georgia and South Carolina, on the western frontier of Connecticut and of Pennsylvania, the struggle between the two parties was marked with cruelty. Notwithstanding the legitimate character of the cause, notwithstanding the virtuous wisdom of its leaders, the infant republic was experiencing the horrors of a civil war.
[Footnote 16: Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. II. p. 240.]
Evils and dangers, still more serious, were every day springing from the national party itself. The motives which led to the insurrection were pure; too pure to consist for any length of time, among the mass at least, with the imperfections of humanity. When the people were appealed to in the name of rights, to be maintained, and honor to be saved, the first impulse was a general one. But, however great may be the favor of Providence in such great enterprises, the toil is severe, success is slow, and the generality of men soon become exhausted through weariness or impatience. The colonists had not taken up arms to escape from any atrocious tyranny; they had not, like their ancestors in fleeing from England, the first privileges of life to regain, personal security and religious toleration. They were no longer stimulated by any urgent personal motive; there were no social spoils to be divided, no old and deep-seated passions to gratify. The contest was prolonged without creating in thousands of retired families those powerful interests, those coarse but strong ties, which, in our old and violent Europe, have so often given to revolutions their force and their misery. Every day, almost every step towards success, on the contrary, called for new efforts and new sacrifices. "I believe, or at least I hope," wrote Washington, "that there is public virtue enough left among us to deny ourselves every thing but the bare necessaries of life, to accomplish this end." [Footnote 17]