temperate character were also brought forward at public meetings in Maryland; and a bill containing many objectionable features was introduced in the popular branch of its legislature, but it was resisted with great eloquence, admirable sense, and unyielding firmness in the senate by two respected individuals, Charles Carroll and Robert Goldsborough, and was essentially modified.

In New-York, the division of public sentiment at the opening of the revolution being very great, each party viewed the other with the most jealous eyes, and felt more seriously the importance of individual exertions. The first act of hostility invited retaliation. Instead of looking to general results, the people of that state were driven to desperation by their continued uncertainty and alarm from dangers which menaced their double frontier.

The laws which were passed for their protection, for the apprehension of persons of "equivocal character," early in the warfare, were soon followed by the establishment of a board of commissioners of sequestration. An institution which, though at first confided to safe hands, was unavoidably entrusted with powers that naturally led to abuse, and ultimately became the organ of many harsh and oppressive proceedings.

Civil discord striking at the root of each social relation, furnished pretexts for the indulgence of malignant passions; and the public good, that oft-abused pretext, was interposed as a shield to cover offences which there were no laws to restrain.

The frequency of abuse, created a party interested both in its continuance and exemption from punishment, which at last became so strong, that it rendered the legislature of the state subservient to its views, and induced the enactment of laws attainting almost every individual whose connections subjected him to suspicion, who had

been quiescent, or whose possessions were large enough to promise a reward to this criminal cupidity.

It must not be supposed that these attempts were unresisted. On the contrary, those who were most efficient in their support of the revolution-those who had incurred the greatest losses-some of those to whom the contest had offered few other fruits than an uninterrupted sacrifice of feeling and property, and who might with much plausibility have thus reimbursed themselves-made a steady resistance to these arbitrary edicts; and when it was at last found to be unavailing, by appearing to unite in the measures of persecution, and by including in the number of the attainted the names of those whose proscription threatened to affect the personal interest of the most violent, showed them the danger of this game of intoler

ance.

These proceedings only exasperated the passions of the populace, and soon after the intelligence of peace, tumultuous meetings were convened under the thus disgraced name of "the sons of liberty," to denounce the tories, to menace them from returning to claim their estates, and to remonstrate with the legislature against measures that could affect titles by confiscation.

By the existing laws the annual election took place in the spring, but as the legislature was convened to meet in January, a proclamation was issued by the Governor, appointing a special election for the city of New York. At this election, held a few weeks after its evacuation, the members were chosen by a small part of its excited population. They partook strongly of its feelings. The proscribed citizens petitioned for permission to return to their residences. This was a moment which magnanimity

* The highest vote was 249.

would have embraced to shield the defenceless, but Clinton, in his opening speech to the legislature, threw all the weight of his powerful influence into the popular scale. "While," he said, "we recollect the general progress of a war which has been marked with cruelty and rapinewhile we survey the ruins of this once flourishing city and its vicinity-while we sympathise in the calamities which have reduced so many of our virtuous fellow-citizens to want and distress, and are anxiously solicitous to repair the wastes and misfortunes we lament," we cannot listen to these petitions.

The action of the legislature was in conformity with this unfeeling declaration. A petition being presented, the leading friend * of the Governor in the assembly immediately moved that it be laid upon the table, and on an amendment to refer it, eight of the nine † members from the city voted against the reference. Two bills followed, both originating in the Senate. One was entitled, “An Act declaring a certain description of persons without the protection of the laws of this State, and for other purposes therein mentioned." On its being considered, a member of the Senate, a violent noted partisan of Clinton,‡ moved an amendment, prescribing a test oath, which, though opposed by Schuyler and five other senators, was incorporated in the Act. It disfranchised the loyalists for ever. The council of revision rejected this violent bill, on the grounds that "the voluntary remaining in a country overrun by the enemy," an act "perfectly innocent," was made penal, and was retrospective; "contrary to the received opinions. of all civilized nations, and even the known principles of

*Colonel Lamb.

† Colonel Rutgers was absent. Journal of Assembly, Feb. 4, 1784. Abraham Yates, jr.

common justice; and was highly derogatory to the honor of the State; that it was totally inconsistent with the public good, for so large a proportion of the citizens remained in the 'region' possessed by the British armies, that in most places it would be difficult, in many absolutely impossible, to find men to fill the necessary offices, even for conducting elections, until a new set of inhabitants could be procured"-that it was "directly in the face of the treaty," and instituted "a new court" in express violation of the constitution of the state. The act, nevertheless, passed by the votes of more than two-thirds of the members, under the specious title of "An Act to preserve the Freedom and Independence of the State."

The other bill was "An Act for the speedy Sale of Confiscated Estates," which, though also objected to by the Council of Revision, became a law on the same day.

Hamilton remarked, as to this test act, "A share in the sovereignty of the State, which is exercised by the citizens at large in voting at elections, is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law. It is that right by which we exist a free people; and it certainly therefore will never be admitted, that less ceremony ought to be used in divesting any citizen of that right, than in depriving him of his property. Such a doctrine would ill suit the principles of the revolution, which taught the inhabitants of this country to risk their lives and fortunes in asserting their liberty, or, in other words, their right to a share in the government." He cautioned against "precedents which may in their consequences render our title to this great privilege precarious." Resolutions were also introduced-one, calling on the governors of the States to interchange lists of the banished persons in order, as was

professed, that the principles of the Federal union might be adhered to and preserved; another, that notwithstanding the recommendation of congress, they could not comply with the fifth article of the treaty. A memorial of one of these nine representatives of New York for a grant of a large body of land by the commissioners of forfeiture, and the fact, that another of them acquired his wealth by the purchase of confiscated property within that city, explain the motives of these arbitrary procedures. Act to repeal the laws inconsistent with the treaty was also rejected by North Carolina.

An

It will be remarked, that through the whole of these proceedings intolerance sought to conceal its deformity under the mask of the demagogue-a watchful solicitude for liberty, and a distrust of designs to effect a revolution in the genius of the government.

It is an invidious office to accumulate testimony of the vitiated state of the popular feeling at this time, and to embody the evidence of facts tending to impair the national character, were not a lesson to be derived from them of infinite value-the tendency of the state governments in moments of excitement to violate the admitted maxims of public law, to disregard the most sacred obligations, and to encroach upon and undermine the rights of individuals, and that the only security of the American citizen against local violence and usurpation, is in his national character, and the broad protection which a well-balanced general government can alone give.

To show the extent to which the rapacious spirit of the times was carried, but one more instance will be adduced. It was a proposal to confiscate the estates of "the society instituted by a charter from the British government for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts," in which light the British colonies and plantations were regarded in that charter-notwithstanding the fifth and sixth articles