[Footnote 14: Ibid., Vol. III. p. 47. Spark's _Life of Washington_, Vol. I. p 261.]
[Footnote 15: Marshall's _Life of Washington_, Vol. II. p. 364.]
Maryland and Georgia were divided. In North and South Carolina, in 1776 and 1779, two Loyalist regiments, one of fifteen hundred, and the other of seven hundred men, were formed in a few days. Against these domestic hostilities, Congress and the local governments used, at first, extreme moderation; rallying the friends of independence without troubling themselves with its opponents; demanding nothing from those who would have refused; everywhere exerting themselves by means of writings, correspondence, associations, and the sending of commissioners into the doubtful counties, to confirm their minds, to remove their scruples, and to demonstrate to them the justice of their cause, and the necessity there was for the steps they had taken. For, generally, the Loyalist party was founded upon sincere and honorable sentiments; fidelity, affection, gratitude, respect for tradition, and a love of established order; and from such sentiments it derived its strength. For some time the government contented itself with watching over this party and keeping it under restraint; in some districts, they even entered into treaty with it, to secure its neutrality. But the course of events, the imminence of the danger, the urgent need of assistance, and the irritation of the passions, soon led to a more rigorous course. Arrests and banishment became frequent. The prisons were filled. Confiscations of property commenced. { 40} Local committees of public safety disposed of the liberty of their fellow-citizens, on the evidence of general notoriety. Popular violence, in more than one instance, was added to the arbitrary severities of the magistrates. A printer in New York was devoted to the cause of the Loyalists; a troop of horsemen, who had come from Connecticut for that purpose, broke his presses and carried off his types. [Footnote 16] The spirit of hatred and vengeance was awakened. In Georgia and South Carolina, on the western frontier of Connecticut and of Pennsylvania, the struggle between the two parties was marked with cruelty. Notwithstanding the legitimate character of the cause, notwithstanding the virtuous wisdom of its leaders, the infant republic was experiencing the horrors of a civil war.