272 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



people under such circumstances worked no civil 

 disability. What they suffered was simply a mis 

 fortune of invasion. If the enemy had temporarily 

 deprived them of their rights, holding them for the 

 moment in abeyance, yet when he retreated they 

 immediately revived. 



But it was not so during the revolutionary con 

 test. That was so emphatically a civil war, that in 

 every State there were two parties in arms against 

 each other. One party fought for American inde 

 pendence, the other for British supremacy, but both 

 were composed of native-born citizens. One was 

 aided by the presence of a British army, the other 

 depended on itself. Had the American people been 

 unanimous in their opposition to Great Britain, it 

 would not have been a civil war, neither could it 

 have been so long maintained against them. But 

 citizen being arrayed against citizen, gave to it a 

 mixed character it was foreign and civil war com 

 bined. To fight for independence was held to be 

 loyal, to oppose it was held to be disloyal. 



Those who opposed it were universally known as 

 Tories. Many of them had been office-holders under 

 the king ; many of them belonged to the highest 

 classes of society ; many were educated, talented, 

 and wealthy ; while the fact cannot be disputed, 

 that Toryism was so prevalent that it furnished more 

 armed men to assist in crushing independence, than 

 the Continental army was able to muster for main 

 taining it. As the Whigs of the Revolution staked 

 their all upon the issue of the contest, the Tories 

 necessarily assumed a like hazard. Many of the 



