eed it seemed to promise all for which they had been
contending. It offered security from further injury, protection against
the Tories who were using the authority of the British for their own
purposes of plunder and revenge, a respite from their calamities, and
a restoration of all their rights. With the immunities thus proffered,
with the further conviction that further struggle against British
power was hopeless, with the assurance, indeed, which was industriously
conveyed to them from all quarters, that Congress, not able to assist,
had resolved upon yielding the provinces of South Carolina and Georgia
to the enemy, as considerations for the independence of the other
colonies--they accepted the terms thus offered them by the British
commander, and, in great numbers, signed declarations of allegiance,
received protection as subjects of the crown, or, as prisoners of war,
were paroled to their plantations. Could the British have persevered in
this policy, had they kept faith with the inhabitants, they might much
longer have held possession of the country. But, either they were not
sincere in their first professions, or their subsequent necessities
compelled them to adopt a less rational policy. Twenty days had not
elapsed from the publication of the first proclamation when it was
followed by another, which so entirely qualified and impaired the
character of the former, as to revolt the people whom it had invited,
and to impress them with the conviction that they had been imposed
upon--that the first measure was a mere decoy,--a trap involving their
pledges, yet withholding the very securities for which they had been
given. This second proclamation, premising that it was necessary for all
good citizens to uphold his Majesty's Government, proceeded to discharge
from protection and parole all persons to whom such papers had been
accorded. All persons not absolutely prisoners of war, taken in arms,
were to be reinstated in their former positions as citizens--but, as
citizens of the British Empire. In this relation the farther inferences
were inevitable. They were now actually to support his Majesty's
Government. The proclamation ended with the usual penalties--all who
neglected to return to their allegiance were to be treated as rebels.

The policy thus adopted by the British commander soon made them so. The
object of the Carolinians, in taking protections and paroles, was to
avoid further warfare. The second proclamation