Tories (American colonies)

“ When Great Britain lost her American colonies by reason of her misgovernment and oppression of them, it was a lesson which her people never forgot. From that day, the colonial policy of the British government was altered, and the spirit of liberality and generosity began to dominate. To-day, every colony of Great Britain that enjoys representative government—Canada, Australia, Cape Colony and many others, owes to the United States the liberty which Great Britain grants. ”

“ Lawrence, then a wilderness, demands our deepest sympathy. In the history of this continent it can be only compared with the melancholy chapter which relates the removal of the French population from their beloved Acadia. During the Revolution they comprised a very large, intelligent, and important body of people, in all the old colonies, especially in New York and at the South, where they were in the majority until the peace. They were generally known as Tories, while their opponents, who supported independence, were called Whigs. ”

“ True; you are not; no more is one twentieth of the British nation; but they may, when they become freeholders, or burgesses: so may you; therefore complain not; for it is impossible to render any human institution absolutely perfect. Were the English animated by your spirit, they would overturn the constitution to-morrow.
Like the colonies of all other countries, you enjoy the privilege of being governed in the same manner, as the people, from which you are derived. You have the same parliament, the same laws; you are all deemed free-born Britons, and are intitled to all their immunities. ”

“ The colonists were themselves loyal, even up to the hour when they were compelled by stubborn tyranny to assert the right of revolution, for, to quote the language of John Adams, "it is true there always existed in the colonies a desire of independence of Parliament in the articles of internal taxation and internal policy, and a very general, if not universal opinion, that they were constitutionally entitled to it, and as general a determination to maintain and defend it. ”

“ That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of parliament on the trade of these colonies, will render them unable to purchase the manufactures of Great Britain. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colonies, depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and an intercourse with Great Britain, mutually affectionate and advantageous. That it is the right of the British subjects in the colonies to petition the king or either house of parliament. ”

“ The development of the individual is subordinated to the use which the disposing class wishes to make of her. Even if it were true that the Indian peoples would object to the enfranchisement of English women, an assertion which has never been supported by any evidence, the success of the argument would be the most astonishing example of Toryism in English history. No Englishman would suggest, after the loss of the American Colonies, that one self-governing community of white men within the Empire should dictate to another how its government should be constituted. ”

“ The influence of the British government over this tribe, through the administration of Sir William Johnson, was unbounded. Many of the foreign emigrants and their descendants were also under this sway, and the whole frontier was spotted with loyalists under the ever hateful name of Tories. These kept the enemy minutely informed of all movements of the revolutionists, and were, at the same time, the most cruel of America's foes, not excepting the Mohawks. ”

“ The weak petition and are spurned, the strong ask and they are listened to with attention, and their demands granted.
"These colonies should be Great Britain's strength, they are her weakness. Give us the right to make our own laws, to raise the taxation as we please, to defend our coasts from external assaults and our land from internal troubles, and we shall honor the king and prove that the American Confederation of Colonies is the strength of that country. ”

“ Throughout the Mohawk valley the influence of Sir John Johnson, the Tory son of the famous baronet of the Seven Years’ War, was thought to be supreme; and it turned out to be very powerful both with the white population and with the Indians. At the other end of the line, in New York city, the Tory element was strong, for reasons already set forth. On Long Island, the people of Kings and Queens counties, of Dutch descent, were Tories almost to a man, while the English population of Suffolk was solidly in favour of independence. ”

“ It is plain that the political action of a colony, even of the ‘self-governing’ type, and of dependent States, as well as of cities and towns, is subject to control by the dominant political authority. The British Parliament and the English courts exercised this authority over the American colonies as they now exercise it over Canada and Australia. ”

“ Democracy in America was coeval with its colonization.
It has been attempted to show in a previous chapter that the spirit of independence in the American colonies, which in the end was embodied in political severance from Great Britain, was as old as their origin, and drew its strength from the fact that they had always been practically independent. ”

“ How much better is the state of the American colonies soon likely to be, than that of France and Spain or than Britain would have been in, if the Bill before mention'd had pass'd into an act? Does it make any real difference whether one man has the sovereign disposal of the peoples purses, or five hundred? Is it not as certain that the British parliament have assumed to themselves the power of raising what money they please in the colonies upon all occasions, as it is, that the Kings of France and Spain exercise the same power over their subjects upon emergencies? ”

“ England could not manage its American colonial interests because the government had no ideal of the colonies beyond that of a commercial business, and the colonies could not handle the interests of England in America because each colony was a separate organization having political interests together in common only in the British Parliament. ”

“ That they were able to perfect an organization and carry on a successful rebellion has obscured the fact that they were in reality but an active minority. The masses were indifferent or were loyal supporters of Great Britain. It is impossible to estimate accurately the number of Loyalists; they varied with localities and fluctuated with the fortunes of war. Some historians estimate them as a third of the population, others as one-half.
The Tory element in the colonies.—The great Loyalist stronghold was New York. There the moderate Tories had controlled the situation for several years. ”

“ In addition, however, to its moral aspects, it affected most vitally the material prosperity of some of our richest colonies; it raised the very dangerous constitutional question of the right of the Imperial Parliament to interfere with the internal affairs of a self-governing colony, and it brought the Home Government into more serious collision with the local Governments than any question since the American Revolution. ”

“ The Parliament of Great Britain had imposed, without even consulting the colonists, a tax for the defence and protection of the colonies, on clayed sugar, indigo, coffee, &c., and the colonists resisted. The American colonies contended that taxation and representation were inseparable, and that having no voice in the administration of affairs, they were free from any taxation, but that which was self-imposed, for local purposes. So far, however, from paying any heed to the remonstrances of the colonists, the Imperial Parliament became more exacting and tyrannical. ”

“ For a hundred years preceding the Revolution the commerce of the colonies may be said to have been in the main practically free, as Great Britain was able to furnish the manufactures which the colony needed. But now the mother country undertook to enforce the obsolete navigation act and her revenue laws with a new vigor, which was not confined to the American colonies, but embraced the whole British empire. As applied to the colonies the measure was equally impolitic and unjust: impolitic, because by breaking up the colonial trade with the West Indies, England crippled her own customer ”

“ Local independence greater than national patriotism.
In the articles of confederation there was no reference whatever to the home government. The New Englanders had taken charge of their own affairs, apparently without a thought of the supremacy of either king or parliament. The spirit of local independence among these people was greater than national patriotism. With Laud in prison and the king an outcast, there could be no interference from that quarter, and Parliament was too busy just then to give much thought to the doings of the distant American colonists. ”

“ When calls for aid came from the deposed officials, many Tories formed bands and attempted to coöperate with the British forces. So serious was the situation that Congress, as early as October, 1775, recommended to the revolutionary governments that they arrest every person who might endanger the colonies or "the liberties of America." On December 30 a congressional committee reported that the Tories of Tryon County, New York, had collected arms and munitions, and that several Loyalists had enlisted in British service. ”

“ As time went on the number of moderate Whigs steadily increased, especially in the Old Colony as befitted the sober temper of the Pilgrim inheritance; even Joseph Otis, of Barnstable, who had rivalled Doctor Nathaniel Freeman in fervor, was to join them, and the lukewarm, patriots or Tories, were ready to declare for the colonies. Even a Tory in exile could be secretly elated by the prowess of his countrymen; and one such in England confided to his diary that “these conceited islanders” may learn to their cost that “our continent can furnish brave soldiers and judicious expert commanders.” ”

“ Instead of confining themselves to those acts, which occasioned the misunderstanding, they demand a repeal of fourteen, and bind the colonies by a law not to trade with Great Britain, until that shall be done. Then, and not before, the colonists are to treat Great Britain as an alien friend, and in no other light is the parent country ever after to be viewed; for the parliament is to surcease enacting laws to respect us forever. ”

“ In a large sense the planting of a colony means merely the expansion of the parent State. But this was not the view formerly taken by European governments. For a long time colonies were treated as dependencies of the mother-country, existing chiefly to furnish revenue to the latter, either directly in taxes or indirectly in increased trade. It was because the English colonists in America, taking a broad view of their relationship to Great Britain, wished to be treated as free Englishmen in Greater Britain, and not merely as revenue-producing subjects, that they revolted in 1776. ”

“ One thing is, however, indispensable to the success of this or any other system of Colonial Government. You must renounce the habit of telling the Colonies that the Colonial is a provisional existence. You must allow them to believe that, without severing the bonds which unite them to Great Britain, they may attain the degree of perfection, and of social and political development, to which organised communities of free men have a right to aspire. ”

“ This bigoted tyrant, who spent his short reign in seeking to overthrow the liberties of England, quickly determined that America needed disciplining, and that these much too independent colonists ought to be made to feel the dominant authority of the king. The New England colonies in particular, which claimed charter rights and disdained royal governors, must be made to yield their patents and privileges, and submit to the rule of a governor-general, appointed by the king, with paramount authority over the colonies. ”

“ But a colony "treated with injury and violence is become an alien. They were not sent out to be slaves, but to be the equals of those that remain behind." It was a great error in the supporters of the British ministry to count upon the sectional jealousies and clashing interests of the colonies. Their real interests were the same, and they would not allow minor differences to divide them, when union was become necessary to maintain in a constitutional way their rights. How was England to prevent this union? ”

“ Such good offices, it is the duty of every Colony to tender and to accept in turn.
The present colonial Minister who is forced to acknowledge the correct axiom that British colonists possessing a representative Assembly are of right freed from the legislation of the Imperial Parliament, is so attached to the privileges enjoyed by his predecessors in office of misgoverning these distant possessions, that he hesitates not to lay bare (in his instructions to Sir Francis Head) in all its naked diformity the Colonial system as it is understood and expounded in Downing Street. ”

“ We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states: that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ”