The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-07-11
TeVyissls.

the same as j, was in I7s6. The history Of
their prototypes had no terrors for tho Tories
OF the present struggle. The spirit and con
duct of these are after the example set by their
odious predecessors in the times that tried
n,ens souls. The infamy of their course is,
Indeed, much greater; for the allegiance OF
the colonies wds due the King. according TO
much moro . contest of principle than OF
feeling. The people Of the colonies we're
warmly and afestionately attached To those OF
the mother country. They were in the habit
of thinking and speaking Of the old country
ss "homs," and their fondest sentiments were
centred upon the scenes and people of father
land.
Tho Revelation of 1879 cost the colonis,s a
struggle Of feeling. They loved England, and
were bound by q thousand ties to her people.
Unlike the North to the Southerner, England
was no less their country than America
There WAS not one sentiment of repulsion or
antagonism betwe. the two peoples. All was
affection, kindness, and mutual attachment
by the most imbecile, corrupt and unscrupu-
lous Government which that often mis-
ruled empire ever knew before, and by King
VINO, although endowed with some few good
qualities as a ruler, was yet, on the whole, one
Of the worst Kings and one Of the worst men
VINO ever sat upon a throne.
The quarrel of the colonies was with the
King and his Government. 1t was not with
the people of Britain. The policy of the Go
vernmsnt towards them had always beer mar
row and injurious /; and now 1t had begun to
be tyrannicxl. Under great statesmen, like
CHATHAM, under less arbitrary kings, like the
FIRST monarehs of the House of Hanover, whose
interests impelled them to cancellation and
during the pressure Of the great wars that had
taxed tho energies of the Empire, the colonies
complained but little Of the policy Of the
home government but when the government
fell into such hands as the GRAFrOSs, Rock
lsGHAAs and NoRTHs when peace had sue
ceeded to war; when the violent temper Of
GEoRas Ill, which was the beginning Of his
insanity, be gan to wreak itself upon the colo
nies. and hsKh and unnecessary measures OF
oppression began to he put into practice by
the Cover nment, then it was that the col0nists
began to take measures for separation and ia
dependence.
Their quarrel was altogether with the King,
his ministers, and with Parliament which was
then not Parliament elected by the people,
but Parliament virtually appointed by the
Court. 1t WAS the Government aud the Gov
eminent alone that was the oppressor Of the
Colonies. The people of Great Britain did
not approve its policy nor sympathize with
lite temper.
Nothing, therefore, could have been more
natural than the fact that a largo class of the
oolonists should, disregarding the conduct Of
the British Government, and cherishing an
aHsctionate attachment for the home country
itself, refuse to take up arms against it. Nor
is it to be forgotten that the old notions of the
divine right Of kings and of perpetual and
inalienable allegiance were then predominant
In the world. There il no doubt that many
good men were conscentiously Tories, looked
upon revolution as sin and crime, and OPP
posed it from pure motives of religion and
patriotism. The judgment of their contem-
poraries was severe upon them, aud they very
often underwent a fate as summary as igno-
minious; but in later times the judgment of
the country, though il cannot forgive, has been
less severe on their conduct, and the Ameri-
can mind has been disposed, in some sort, to
excuse their mere Toryism where it did not
assume the form Of active hostility to thor
own flesh and blood and native soil.
But, notwithstanding these pallialing con-
sidorations, which all now acknowledge, the
name Of Tory is still the name most Odious to
tho American ear, and execrable to the Ameri-
can mind. If the judgment of the country
DO thus severe upon the men who refused to
make common cause with their countrymen
against the Government and people of Great
Britain, what must it be upon the Tories Of
'sl! The quarrel Of the South is not with the
Governments of the North and their minions'
but with the people Of the North. II is not
the Washington Government alone that has
trampled under foot their constitutional rights;
but it is the Northern people who, for thirty
years, by acts of every day, and by insults in
every form, have outraged and injured them.
The cruel and inhuman war that is now waged
against them, is one urged aud forced upon
the Government by the people Of the North,
who are the real and the bitterest enemies anu
haters Of the South. Nor is there any shadow
Of right Of divine rule pretended for the Gov
eminent Ut this enlightened day. The super
stitious Of the last century on that subject are
benished even in Europe.
The doctrine Of the American continent is,
that the hrst allegiance Of the citizen is due to
the State /; and that he is bound to support Il Q
Government only when it observes the
provisions of the Constitution. There is,
therefore, neither the sense Of duty to the
Govern uent, which by the act of the seeding
States has become foreign one, nor Of aztec
tion for the people Of the North, to tempt or
excuse the Southern Tory. His taking aides
with the North against the South is an &C, Of
pure mesnness and besstly treason. The n en-
wao will sspouse the Yankee side Of this con-
tsov-rsy, would join the negroes in an insur-
ree.ion for hearts that are black enough
81 sympstbiss with Yankees are depraytd
. rough to make common cause with slayeS.---
Indeed, the sequel will show that these men, il
over the Yankees gain fpo.hold in a slave
holding region Of country, will make common
cause with them, the free negroes aud the
slaves. Compared with the Tory of '6i, the
Tory of l776 was patriot. II the one WAS
traitor, the other is traitor with every aggra-
walton that can make the character infa-
mo- ~, mean aud damnabie.