on
from the mother country as patriotic love of constitutional liberty,
which, even at this day, in the United States, is not comparable with
that of Great Britain--some of the ablest American writers being
judges.]

[Footnote 402: Elliott's New England History, Vol. II., Chap. xxvii.,
pp. 369-375.

"A large number of the merchants in all the chief commercial towns of
the colonies were openly hostile, or but coldly inclined to the common
cause. General Lee, sent to Newport (Rhode Island) to advise about
throwing up fortifications, _called the principal persons among the
disaffected before him, and obliged them by a tremendous oath to support
the authority of Congress_. The Assembly met shortly after, and passed
an Act subjecting to death, with confiscation of property, all who
should hold intercourse with or assist the British ships. But to save
Newport from destruction it presently became necessary to permit a
certain stated supply to be furnished to the British ships from that
town." (Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. III., Chap.
xxxii., p. 102.)

"In the Middle colonies the unwillingness to separate from Great Britain
was greater than in the colonies either to the North or South. One
reason probably was, that in this division were the towns of New York
and Philadelphia, which greatly profited by their trade to England, and
which contained a larger proportion of English and Scotch merchants,
who, with few exceptions, were attached to the royal cause." (Tucker's
History of the United States, Vol. I., p. 150.)]

[Footnote 403: History of the United States, Vol. III., Chap. xxxiii.,
pp. 137, 138.

On the 18th of June, 1776, about two weeks before adopting the
Declaration of Independence, Congress "_Resolved_,--That no man in these
colonies charged with being a Tory, or unfriendly to the cause of
American liberty, be injured in his person or property, unless the
proceeding against him be founded on an order of Congress or Committee,"
etc. But this resolution amounted practically to nothing. It seems to
have been intended to allay the fears and weaken the opposition of
loyalists, but contributed nothing for their protection, or to mitigate
the cruel persecutions everywhere waged against them.]

[Footnote 404: Life and Correspondence of President Reed, Vol. I., p.
195. Washington, however, in his public letter to Congress (unless Mr.
Jared Sparks has _improved_ this passage), says that the troops had
te