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031 - Chapter 28 - Conclusion · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Second thirty one of History the Rise, Progress and Termination
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  Speaker 1: of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy ODIs Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty eight conclusion. In order to check this rancorous spirit,
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  Speaker 1: or rather to lessen the influence of such an ividious
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  Speaker 1: temper and prevent the fatal effects that, by on both sides,
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  Speaker 1: arise from its indulgence. General Carlton, soon after his arrival
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  Speaker 1: at New York, had directed the dissolution of the Society
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  Speaker 1: and forbidden any more meetings as an associated body under
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  Speaker 1: any name or form. But he considered the situation of
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  Speaker 1: this class, morely those who had been active members of
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  Speaker 1: the Board of Associated Loyalists, as too hazard is to dessert.
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  Speaker 1: At the present moment. It has been observed that he
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  Speaker 1: thought it his indispensable duty to reside in the city
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  Speaker 1: and to retain the British troops of the town for
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  Speaker 1: the protection of all the unhappy people. Under the description
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  Speaker 1: of tories or loyalists. He therefore waited until some arrangements
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  Speaker 1: of proper provisions could be made for their subsistence. Notwithstanding
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  Speaker 1: the British negotiators have been obliged to lead them in
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  Speaker 1: a very indeterminate situation, or received from the negotiations for peace.
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  Speaker 1: Great attention had been paid to this description of persons
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  Speaker 1: in the debates of the British Parliament. Sir Adam Pergison
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  Speaker 1: has suggested some time before the peace, in the course
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  Speaker 1: of debate, that they are to be divided into three classes.
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  Speaker 1: First those who had early taken arms in the class
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  Speaker 1: of Britain. Secondly those who had fled to England with
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  Speaker 1: their families. Lastly those who had continued at home and
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  Speaker 1: did not act or style themselves loyalists until the King's
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  Speaker 1: troops called them out to express their opinions by personally
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  Speaker 1: acting against the Americans. He said that a discrimination ought
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  Speaker 1: to be made, and that they should be rewarded according
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  Speaker 1: to their marrits and sufferings. This discrimination was attended with difficulty,
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  Speaker 1: but every one thought that government was under obligations to
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  Speaker 1: each of these classes that could not be winked out
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  Speaker 1: of sight. But they all had claims the consideration and
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  Speaker 1: compensation for their efforts to support the measures of Parliament,
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  Speaker 1: if not for any essential services rented to the Crown.
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  Speaker 1: Many noblemen were zealous that suitable provisions should be made
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  Speaker 1: for the American Loyalists of all descriptions, and no one
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  Speaker 1: appeared more interested in their favor than Lord Shelburne. In
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  Speaker 1: consequence of this, some arrangements were made for their establishment
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  Speaker 1: and an apportionment of lands assigned them in the province
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  Speaker 1: of Nova Scotia. They were there assisted by the British
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  Speaker 1: government to erect a town which was incorporated by the
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  Speaker 1: name of Shelbourne and patronized by his lordship, But it
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  Speaker 1: was a sterile spot, and many of them took better
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  Speaker 1: ground for themselves at Brunswick, Saint John's and other parts
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  Speaker 1: of Nova Scotia, Canada, and within limits of any part
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  Speaker 1: of the American territory yet claimed by Great Britain. The
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  Speaker 1: officers of the provincial corps were allowed have paid for life,
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  Speaker 1: but notwithstanding any partial compensations made to the Loyalists by
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  Speaker 1: the British government, this situation, in every view was truly pitiable.
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  Speaker 1: Many of them had long separated from their families and
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  Speaker 1: tenderest connections. They had flattered themselves with the hope of
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  Speaker 1: returning into a different circumstances at the conclusion of a
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  Speaker 1: war which they had expected would much sooner have terminated,
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  Speaker 1: and have terminated in a manner equal to their sanguine
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  Speaker 1: ideas of the irresistible arm of Britain, the most exalted
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  Speaker 1: opinion of the strength and power of that nation, a
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  Speaker 1: reverential detachment to the monarch, and the fond influence of
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  Speaker 1: old tabits of government and obedience to parliamentary regulations, had
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  Speaker 1: all cooperated with their ideas of the complete subjugation of
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  Speaker 1: the American colonies. They naturally calculated that they should then
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  Speaker 1: be restored to their former residences and become the favorite
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  Speaker 1: subjects of royal patronage. They had reason to expect that
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  Speaker 1: their unshaken loyalty and uniform exertions to facilitate the designs
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  Speaker 1: of the Court of Saint James justly deserved a high
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  Speaker 1: attribute of gratitude from the Crown than they had received
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  Speaker 1: their banishment to an iron shore. With a cold recommendation
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  Speaker 1: to the state legislatures to permit the to revisit those
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  Speaker 1: friends that might yet have survived the hand of time
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  Speaker 1: and misfortune, and to make an effort to recover their
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  Speaker 1: scattered property, that it frequently shifted hands, as is usual
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  Speaker 1: in the confusion of revolutionary struggles, could not be viewed
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  Speaker 1: by them as very high marks of consideration. Yet many
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  Speaker 1: of them submitted afterwards to their condition with the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of enterprise and resolution, and endeavored to establish their new
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  Speaker 1: settlements on a respectable footing. But their embarrassments in a
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  Speaker 1: situation so new, the soil unprolific, the climate frigid, and
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  Speaker 1: the natural propensity of the human mind to sigh after
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  Speaker 1: return to its natal spot to finish the career of
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  Speaker 1: present existence, all co operated to defeat their success Shelbourne,
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  Speaker 1: the pride of their hopes, was in a few years
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  Speaker 1: nearly depopulated, and many expensive and elegant buildings left without
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  Speaker 1: an inadvident. As who shall not again have any further
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  Speaker 1: occasion to recur to the subject of the loyalists, a
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  Speaker 1: few observations the results of their subsequent conduct may be
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  Speaker 1: here introduced with propriety, though it is rather an anticipation.
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  Speaker 1: Those who fixed themselves on the more fertile borders of
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  Speaker 1: the Bay of Fundae and Saint John's River succeeded better
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  Speaker 1: than those at Shelburne. But though few of them felt
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  Speaker 1: themselves greatly obligated to the justice or the generosity of
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  Speaker 1: the British government, they continued their fealty and attachment to
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  Speaker 1: the Crown of England with the same zeal and fervor
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  Speaker 1: which formerly glowed in the bosoms of the inhabitants of
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  Speaker 1: all the American colonies. The planting a new settlement is
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  Speaker 1: an unpleasant task to those who have been used to
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  Speaker 1: softer habits from the industry fatigue and self denial necessary
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  Speaker 1: to promote its success. Nor does the laborious exercise of
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  Speaker 1: felling trees in a directing law cuts for themselves yield
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  Speaker 1: much satisfaction to those of a rupper class. But in
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  Speaker 1: the anticipation of better prospects of future, the hand of time,
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  Speaker 1: which generally amelily reads the miseries of man or reconciles
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  Speaker 1: the mind to its misfortunes, was not sufficiently lenient to
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  Speaker 1: make happy these once voluntary emigrants, either in Canada and
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  Speaker 1: Ultra Sculpture, or even in England. Impatient under the sentence
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  Speaker 1: of exile from their native land, some of them returned
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  Speaker 1: to America as aliens, and avail themselves of the benefit
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  Speaker 1: of the Act of Naturalization afterwards passed by the American
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  Speaker 1: government in favor of those who wished to become citizens
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  Speaker 1: of the United States. But under the influence of their
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  Speaker 1: old prejudices in favor of monarchy, and their minds lowered
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  Speaker 1: down by habit to succumb to the doctrines of passive obedience,
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  Speaker 1: some of them were restless and uneasy in the society
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  Speaker 1: of men who have recently suffered so much to procure
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  Speaker 1: liberty and independence to themselves. In posterity, they fomented divisions,
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  Speaker 1: disseminated party opinions, ridiculed the principles of the revolution, and
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  Speaker 1: filified many of the first characters who had exerted themselves
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  Speaker 1: to secure the liberties of their country. These, combined with
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  Speaker 1: other circumstances that took place, seemed to throw a temporary
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  Speaker 1: veil of the republican system. All those who returned to
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  Speaker 1: the bosom of their country after the peace ought not
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  Speaker 1: to be implicated as inheriting such vindictive dispositions. Whenever the
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  Speaker 1: loyalists are mentioned in a collective body, it is but
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  Speaker 1: just to make a reservation of some exceptions in favors
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  Speaker 1: such as bled when the terrors awakened in their bosoms
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  Speaker 1: by the convulsive sounds of war, these only wished to
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  Speaker 1: return to their native soil and enjoy a quiet precedents
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  Speaker 1: in the land which gave them birth. Persons of this
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  Speaker 1: description were to be found in every state in the
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  Speaker 1: Union after they were permitted by treaty to return. These
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  Speaker 1: were objects of commiseration rather than blame. They had lost
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  Speaker 1: their property, their friends, and their felicity from a mistaken
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  Speaker 1: apprehension of the power of the hostile arm that had
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  Speaker 1: been stretched out for the invasion of America before their emigration.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever testimony truth may require from an historian when investigating
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  Speaker 1: the motives of action and public bodies, or scrutinizing individual character,
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  Speaker 1: the proneness of man to err should always admonish him
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  Speaker 1: that it is an indispensable duty to be candid, where
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  Speaker 1: again it is to be lamented when political opinion is
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  Speaker 1: the only bond of attachment. When merit, however, conspicuous, is
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  Speaker 1: not acknowledged but by the party in which it is
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  Speaker 1: in listed, the web of prejudice is then so thickly
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  Speaker 1: interwell of them that no ray of brotherly kindness can penetrate,
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  Speaker 1: and that charity which covers a multitude of sins is
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  Speaker 1: totally annihilated. Though the anticipation in the preceding short chapter
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  Speaker 1: may not exactly accord with the rules of historic writing,
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  Speaker 1: no other apology is necessary than that the awakened curiosity
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  Speaker 1: of the reader, as well as his compassion, will naturally
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  Speaker 1: excite a wish to trace the destiny of a body
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  Speaker 1: of men or had set their faces against the liberties
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  Speaker 1: of mankind and the exertions of their countrymen. This class
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  Speaker 1: had hazarded their own fortune and liberty, which was staked
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  Speaker 1: against the independence of America and the freedom of future generations.
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  Speaker 1: This cursory reviewed the situation of those unhappy emigrants, the
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  Speaker 1: treatment which they receive from the British government, their destination
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  Speaker 1: and compass station, and consequence of their attachment to the
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  Speaker 1: Monarch of England, will doubtless be permitted, though not in
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  Speaker 1: due order of time, as it was the natural result
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  Speaker 1: of a survey of their character their condition, they faded,
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  Speaker 1: the close of the war and their subsequent deportment. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section thirty one