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Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
April 13, 1893

GLIMPSES OF THE PAST

Contributions to the History of Charlotte County and the Border Towns.

LXII – THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS.

[Rev. W. O. Raymond, M. A.]

9.- Cruelty and Perfidy of the Victors.

New York had been a rallying place for the British during the war, and thither as to a city of refuge the Loyalists naturally turned their faces when the success of their antagonists was assured.

The events of the conflict had been sadly mismanaged, but with the appointment of Sir Guy Carleton to the command, in April, 1782, the British cause at length passed into competent hands.

The severity of the acts against the Loyalists was not mitigated at the close of the war-a fact which aroused the strongest indignation, not only of the Loyalists themselves, but of some few fair-minded men among the Americans.  Among these Nathaniel Green contended, ‘It would be the excess of intolerance to persecute men for opinions which but twenty years before had been the universal belief of every class of society.’  John Jay wrote that he ‘had no desire to conceal the opinion that to involve the Tories in indiscriminate punishment and ruin would be an instance of unnecessary vigor and unmanly revenge without a parallel, except in the annals of religious rage in times of bigotry and blindness.’

The action of the republican leaders of the state of New York at close of the war was particularly discreditable.

The sixth article of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States decreed that there should be ‘no confiscations made, nor any prosecutions commenced against any person or persons for or by reason of the part which he or they might have taken in the war; and that no person should on that account suffer any future loss or damage, either in his person, liberty or property; yet at the very next term the supreme court of the state of New York indicted above one thousand reputable, opulent gentlemen, merchants and farmers for high treason in adhering to the enemies of the state.

The terms of the treaty further provided,

That the Congress shall earnestly recommend to the Legislatures of the respective States to provide for the restitution of all Estates, Rights and Properties which have been confiscated . . . . that persons shall have free liberty to go to any part or parts of the thirteen United States and therein to remain twelve months unmolested in their endeavours to obtain restitution of such of their estates, rights and properties as may have been confiscated.

The British commissioners naturally expected that a ‘recommendation of Congress’ would be binding upon all the states.  Throughout the war any person that would have disputed the validity of any ‘recommendation of Congress’ would have been deemed an enemy of his country, held up and advertised as such, exposed to be maltreated by the Sons of Liberty, and subjected to imprisonment.  Nevertheless, the provisions inserted in the treaty for the benefit of the Loyalists were only so much waste paper.  Congress did indeed make the formal ‘recommendation,’ as agreed; but it was well understood that no attempt would be made to carry it into effect, and the state authorities were left free to do as they desired.  What they did is forcibly stated by Judge Jones in these words:

No sooner did the Loyalists who had taken protection within the British lines attempt to return to their respective provinces and former places of abode than they were taken up and insulted.  Some were tarred and feathered, many tied up and whipped in the most inhuman manner, while others were actually ham-stringed and sent back into the British lines . . . . Committees were formed in the several states and resolutions of the most violent kind entered into against these unhappy people and all others who should harbour, protect or assist them.

Sir Guy Carleton now set himself seriously about the evacuation of New York and the outposts still in possession of his forces.  By the terms of the treaty it was to be done ‘with all convenient speed.’  He made no unnecessary delays; but he was determined not to leave the country till he could transport the Loyalists, to their respective destinations; and considering the difficulties attending so large an embarkation, the great deficiency of transports for a long time, and the immense number of Loyalists, it is surprising in how short a time Sir Guy was able to complete his task.

Numbers of Loyalists had ere then sought an asylum in Nova Scotia, some had fled to England, many of those in the South had removed to St. Augustine in Florida, the Bahamas, Sumner Islands and Jamaica, some even going to Upper Canada and Newfoundland.

At the evacuation of Savannah, in the summer of 1782, a large number of refugees accompanied the army, but many more remained.  These, as soon as the British had departed, suffered frightfully at the hands of their enemies.  According to Judge Jones’s account,

The Loyalists were seized, hove into dungeons, prisons and provosts.  Some were tied up and whipped, others tarred and feathered, some were dragged to horse ponds and drenched till near dead, others were carried about the town in carts with labels upon their backs and breasts with the word ‘Tory’ in capitals written thereon.  All were turned out of their homes and obliged to sleep in the streets or fields and their goods plundered. . . . To complete the scene, a gallows was erected upon the quay facing the harbour, and twenty-four Loyalists hanged in sight of the British fleet with the army and refugees on board.

Sir Guy Carleton was led to write Elias Bourdinot, the president of Congress, on the 17th of August, 1783, in strong terms, stating that,

The violence of the Americans which broke out soon after the cessation of hostilities increased the number of their countrymen to look to me for escape from threatened destruction.  Almost all within these lines conceive the safety of both their property and of their lives depend upon their being removed by me, which renders it impossible to say when the evacuation will be completed. . . But as the daily Gazettes and publications furnish repeated proofs, not only of a disregard to the Articles of Peace, but of barbarous menaces from committees formed in the various towns, cities and districts-even in Philadelphia, the very place chosen by Congress for their residence-I should show an indifference to the feelings of humanity. . . . to leave any of the Loyalists that are desirous to quit the country a prey to the violence they conceive they have so much reason to apprehend.

The treatment of the Savannah Loyalists, and the threats freely employed everywhere by the successful Americans, increased the number of exiles greatly; although there is reason to believe that Judge Jones’s estimate that not less than 100,000 souls were sent from New York by Sir Guy Carleton prior to the evacuation of the city is exaggerated.

[Mr. J. G. Lorimer, referring to Col. David Fanning, whose name was mentioned in a recent article of this series, writes:- When a lad in my teens, I conversed with the identical Col. Fanning, in the town of Digby, N. S., and I remember his personal appearance as of yesterday.  He was of medium height, sandy complexion, and, even then, nearly at three-score years and ten, looked every inch a war veteran – besides I well remember hearing him swear rather wickedly in speaking of the ‘rebels.’

In connection with DeLancey, Mr. Lorimer adds:- In 1825, his two sons, Stephen and Peter, were favorites in Annapolis Royal – both young men, and both, like their bold father, fond of the saddle.  The commandant of the troops at that time stationed at Annapolis allowed each of the young men a soldier to act as valet in honor of their father, the dashing cavalry colonel.]

[A St. Stephen man, near whose birthplace, in Annapolis county, N. S., a colony of disbanded Hessian soldiers had been settled at the close of the Revolutionary war, remembers some of them who were still living there about seventy years ago.  Though they were at that time old men from seventy to eighty years of age, they would walk six or eight miles on Sundays to attend the church at Moose river; and it was their custom to sing a hymn in their own language before the English service began.  One by one the veterans sank under the weight of years, and the section of the little church set apart for their use began to be occupied by others; but they kept up their singing before the service until only three or four were left to unite their trembling voices in the old German hymns which must have meant so much to them, the hymns of their native land.]