a Convention, and reduced to the position of proscribed
aliens or slaves, must have been galling to Loyalists beyond
expression, and well calculated to prompt them to outbreaks of passion,
and retaliations of resentment and revenge, each such act followed by a
corresponding act from the opposite party.[104]

It might be supposed that forbearance and respect would have been shown
to those who remained "steadfast and immovable" in the traditional faith
of British monarchy and British connection, notwithstanding a corrupt
and arbitrary party was in power for the time being; but the very
reverse of this was the case on the part of those who professed, as one
cardinal article of their political creed, that "all men are born free
and equal," and therefore that every man had an equal right to his
opinions, and an equal right to the expression of them; but all this was
reversed in the treatment of the Loyalists. Mr. Hildreth well describes
the position and treatment of the Loyalists, both before and after the
Declaration of Independence, in the following words:

"In the position of that considerable class of persons who had remained
in doubt, the Declaration of Independence and the assumption of State
government made a decided change. It was now necessary to choose one
side or the other.

"Very serious, too, was the change in the legal position of the class
known as Tories, in many of the States a large minority, and in all
respectable for wealth and social position. Of those thus stigmatized,
some were inclined to favour the utmost claims of the mother country;
_but the greater part, though determined to adhere to the British
connection, yet deprecated the policy which had brought on so fatal a
quarrel_. This loyal minority, especially its more conspicuous members,
as the warmth of political feeling increased, had been exposed to the
violence of mobs, and to all sorts of personal indignities, in which
private malice or a wanton and insolent spirit of mischief had been too
often gratified under the disguise of patriotism. The barbarous and
disgraceful practice of tarring and feathering and carting Tories,
placing them in a cart and carrying them about as a sort of spectacle,
had become in some places a favourite amusement. To restrain these
outrages, Congress had specially committed the oversight of Tories and
suspected persons to the regularly appointed Committees of Inspection
and Observation for the several counties and d