LAST ROYAL GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 5 



partisan prejudice has obscured or distorted the true 

 features. To this day British writers are apt to speak 

 of Patrick Henry as a ranting fire-eater, and Samuel 

 Adams as a tricksome demagogue ; while upon the 

 pages of American historians may be found remarks 

 that, as applied to such high-minded gentlemen as 

 Burgoyne or Cornwallis, are simply silly. 



But of all the men of that day none have fared so 

 ill as the American loyalists. They were not only out 

 of sympathy with the declared policy of their country, 

 but they were on the losing side. As a party they 

 were crushed out of existence, as individuals they were 

 driven into exile by thousands ; and for a long time 

 their voice was silenced. Liberal leaders in England, 

 like Fox and Richmond, who hailed with glee the 

 news of each American victory, were equally out of 

 sympathy with the declared policy of their own coun- 

 try ; but they were, nevertheless, a power in the land. 

 The unanswerable logic of events was on their side ; 

 it was they that could say, " We told you so " ; they 

 represented principles that triumphed at Yorktown and 

 were soon to triumph in England. The American 

 loyalists, on the other hand, represented principles 

 that have been irredeemably and forever discredited. 

 They set themselves in opposition to the strongest 

 and most wholesome instinct of the English race, the 

 inborn love of self-government ; and they have incurred 

 the fate which is reserved for men who diverge too 

 widely from the progressive movement of the age in 

 which they live. It becomes difficult for the next age 

 to understand them, or to attribute their behaviour to 

 anything but sheer perverseness. Yet among these 

 American loyalists were men of noblest character and 



